TIVERTON Town manager Chris Vinnicombe will not be signing any players until he has seen his prospective squad in action.

Tivvy returned to pre-season training last Thursday, with the majority of the players attening being new to the Ladysmead outfit.

Only two of last year's side — defenders Adam Faux and Alex Faux — were involved in the initial session, though Vinnicombe insists a number of players likely to return to the Town ranks were unavailable on Thursday.

The new Yellows boss hopes to have 'six or seven' of the previous squad signed on at the start of the new campaign — including midfielders Colin Marshall and Jamie Hatch and strikers Joe Bushin and Adam Mortimer.

In their stead, David Steele and Ben Mammola, who were both with Willand Rovers last term, Witheridge goalkeeper Chris Wright and Holsworthy's Chris Rundle all trained.

But Vinnicombe says there will be no decisions made on who will sign for Tivvy this season until after their first pre-season friendly — against the Royal Marines in three weeks' time.

"I won't be signing anyone until we've had a good look at them in match situations," he explained.

"But it was a good start — it was an excellent turnout of players. We had a chat with a lot of them beforehand about coming along to training and they all seemed keen and eager to stake a claim to come along and play for Tiverton Town.

"There were a lot of new faces wanting to come and play and that's always encouraging.

"But I can't say who will be here this season until I've seen them in a game.

"Training is different from playing. Someone can be brilliant in training and then totally different in a game.

"We've got a game on July 10 against the Royal Marines — we'll start making decisions after that."

Training will continue for Tiverton throughout the summer every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday until the friendly games begin.

And Vinnicombe is hoping that his positive working relationship with assistant boss Mark Saunders will ensure that the team enter the season well prepared.

"Mark's been fantastic for me, he's helped me out and he's got a lot of contacts as well," he added. "Even before I came in he was busy sorting out pre-season friendlies and so on.

"Recently we've been getting our heads together as we try to work out what squad we want and who we want.

"If we can get that right and we can keep everyone enthusiastic at training, then hopefully we can get off to a good start."