Mussels make more signings ahead of first friendly

Defender Niall O’Hagan has signed from Arundel, goalkeeper Nick Collick joins from Crowborough and Mark Zydonik and Josh Heyburn have also returned to the club, having played under Mussels boss Bryan O’Toole three seasons ago.

Shoreham entertain local rivals Southwick in their first pre-season friendly on Saturday and O’Toole is delighted with the signings he has made so far.

The quartet are added to Rob O’Toole, Andy Pearson, Joe Keehan, George Gaskin, Scott Packer, Mitchell Hand, Jack Rowe-Hurst and Kevin Keehan, who is assistant manager/player.

O’Toole said: “Mark has played for me before and is a person and a player I really like. He is a good defender, physical, quick and strong and I’m looking forward to having him back.

“Niall is quick and another big presence. He ticks all the boxes of players I want here and can also play right-back, so only makes us stronger as a squad.

“Nick has the right attitude, kicks the ball well and is another good addition to the squad, as is Josh.

“I just want to get started now. We’re only going to have had two training sessions before we play our first friendly against Southwick on Saturday.

“We’ve got eight or nine friendlies lined up and will only have about six training sessions but there’s no point in running the players into the ground as that’s no good for anyone.

“We’ll just make sure we are ready for the first game of the season on August 6 and will then take it one game at a time, like I always say.

“Every game is going to be difficult this season, especially when we have games coming thick and fast, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. That’s why I won’t be training every Thursday during the season. I don’t want things to become a chore for the players as I want them looking forward to every game.”

Southwick will use Saturday’s game to have a look at their new signings and potential new players, while they have re-signed the majority of last season’s squad.

Southwick boss John Kilgarriff said: “Most of last season’s squad have re-signed and we hope to sign two or three new players but I won’t say anything until they’ve signed on.

“We’ll be running an under-21 team instead of a reserve side this season and hopefully a few of those younger players will come through during the season.

“We finished in the top five last season and we’ll be looking forward to the new season when the aim will be to finish as high as we can again and above our local rivals Mile Oak.”

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