New Ryman League campaign to kick-off

Redbridge face a tough start to this season’s Ryman Division One North season as they travel to play Erith & Belvedere on Saturday before entertaining Aveley on Tuesday night.

And joint-manager Dave Ross admits he will know a lot more about the side come Wednesday.

Until then, the only target he will set for his and Ricky Eaton’s team, is to be competitive in each match.

He said: “We’ll know a lot more about our team come next Wednesday.

“There are no real targets because at the end of the day, you won’t find out about your squad until the season starts.

“I take it a game at a time. You can’t look ten games ahead because you might have ten really tough games.

“I hope we are in the top six after ten games, I’d hope we are top after ten games, course I do, but you can’t tell yet and I just want us to be competitive first.

“The first two games are hard and if we don’t like what we see, we will make changes.”

The Motormen got a surprise when they travelled to face Essex Senior League side Enfield in a pre-season friendly on Saturday, as instead of playing on grass as expected, they had to play on a 3G pitch.

The visitors ended up losing 3-1 and although Ross stopped short of using the pitch as an excuse, he felt it wasn’t great for their preparation.

“We didn’t take a lot from the game (against Enfield), it was very disappointing,” added the joint-manager.

“We didn’t think it would be on a 3G pitch. We thought it would be on grass, so that didn’t help.

“There were very little positives. Not using the pitch as an excuse, but when you expect to play on grass and you don’t it isn’t the best preparation.”

Motormen completed their pre-season campaign with another defeat in midweek and it would have been particular painful for Eaton and new chairman Imran Merchant as the 2-1 reverse was against their former club London Bari.