Sidley focused on developing youth

Barham, who stepped into the Gullivers hot seat a month ago, wants to see the finest young talent filtering through into the first and reserve teams.

"In the past," Barham said, "it's been a bit neglected if you like. But what we're trying to do is get a bit more togetherness between the under-16s, the under-17s and the under-18s. Myself, (coach) Keith Miles and (assistant manager) Andy Laskey want to get these lads into the under-17s and under-18s and through into the reserve and first teams.

"In Sidley's case they need to worry about the youth teams because they've not got the money to go out and get players. If we can get four or five players from this, it will be a real bonus for the club.

"The Glenco guys are really, really up for it. It's not just going to be a big thing at the start of the season: we're going to carry it through. During the season we're going to watch games and sometimes the under-18s will come and train with the first and reserve teams and sometimes we can go and do sessions for them. It shows that the whole club means business and the good kids around the town should be up at that club."

On the first team front, Barham claims to have verbally signed Rye & Iden United midfielder Scott Price and to have secured the services of well-respected former boss Roy Miller to deliver pre-season training sessions.

"We've got Scott Price," he continued, "that's a definite. He will get us goals from midfield, which is something we've possibly lacked and there's a couple of others that I'm 80 or 90 per cent sure I'm going to get."