Horsham make six signings ahead of Premier Division return

They are led by 23-goal topscorer Chris Smith and Jack Brivio, who captained the side to Bostik League South East promotion via victory in the play-offs.

Striker Rob O’Toole, who chipped in with 19 goals, has also agreed to remain along with the player with whom O’Toole shared the supporters’ player of the season award - Harvey Sparks.

Both Lee Harding and Charlie Harris, who is undergoing recovery from his knee operation that sidelined him for the second half of the season, complete the first batch of last season's squad to re-sign.

Horsham manager Dominic Di Paola told the West Sussex County Times last week that he'd like to keep all of the current squad together as well as adding a few more additions.

Speaking to the club's website after the news of the signings, he said: "I’m delighted by the guys’ commitment. I’d like everyone to stay, to be honest, because they all deserve a chance after how they played last season.

"Ideally I’d like to go with the squad we’ve got and add perhaps four players to it and I’m speaking to a number of potential signings at the moment. As a group, the lads get on so well together and really graft for each other but we know it’s going to be a hard ask, stepping up a level.

"We saw when we came up from the County League how we struggled at first so we’ve got to get things right in pre-season and get ourselves really fit for the challenge ahead.”