Jones has ‘a lot of work to do’ as he bids to rebuild the Puritans squad

The new Puritans manager completed his seventh signing of the summer last week with the addition of 22-year-old striker Ken Charles, who was most recently at Cheshunt having spent some time at King’s Lynn Town.

With the majority of last season’s squad having departed, the Puritans are set to have a much different look for their second campaign in the Vanarama National League North, which gets under way on Saturday, August 5.

New boss Jones insists he is happy with the work he has done so far.

And he is now keen to run the rule over a number of trialists in the early stages of pre-season with Banbury set to play their first friendly at Easington Sports next Tuesday night.

“We have got seven signed players and I am happy with what we have done so far,” boss Jones said.

“We have got quite a lot of trialists in who I want to have a look at so I don’t see there being an influx of signings at the moment because I want to give some opportunities to these lads in the first two or three friendlies.

“It will be interesting to see how they do and then we will look at it in a couple of weeks to see where we are.

“We have some good players in with us who aren’t attached to a club so that could be positive for us.

“We are pleased with what we have done but we accept there is a lot of work to do.

“We were in a situation where I was trying to be patient and give the players from last season a chance to make up their minds over whether they were going to stay or go.

“That may have put us back a bit further still and, ultimately, 99 per cent of the squad have moved on.

“It’s not unusual in non-League football and there will be other managers in a similar situation.

“So we are possibly a couple of weeks behind where we would like to be but we will get on with it and carry on preparing for that first game on August 5.”