JOINT-boss Lee Hughes declared himself content with Worcester City’s rebuilt squad ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup curtain-raiser at Daventry Town (3pm).

The nomadic club dropped three levels to the Midland League over the summer after resigning from National League North — a division they would have been relegated from anyway — in a bid to cut costs.

Officials had hoped to be placed in the league above and have recruited experienced former players such as Hughes, Mark Danks and Shabir Khan.

With much expected of the likes of hot-shot Dave Reynolds and Worcester-born midfielder Brad Birch talk from the City camp is of a title tilt in their first season outside the top two tiers of non-league football since World War II.

And on the back of bringing in Coleshill Town centre-half Tom Fishwick and rubber stamping deals for a smattering of youngsters this week Hughes is happy with his lot.

“We are pretty much there now,” said the ex-West Bromwich Albion striker ahead of his first season in management.

"We have a good mix of experience and youngsters who have done well.

“The boys have worked their socks off during pre-season. We have got them organised and you can see we have a lot of desire in the group.

“I think the squad is good enough. We have good lads and characters in the dressing room who want to work for each other and we can already see that out on the pitch.”

Opponents Daventry will know all too well about City's summer plight having dropped two levels 12 months ago before bouncing back to win United Counties League Division One by nine points.

They will play at the same level as Worcester this term.

City’s slip to step five sees them start in the extra preliminary round, three stages earlier than in previous seasons and six away from the first round proper.

An earlier start to the world’s oldest cup competition was rolled out last season but Hughes has no problem with setting off on the potentially-lucrative path to Wembley without sampling any league action first.

“It is just another game,” said Hughes.

“I don’t mind to be honest. It is a game you have to play and want to win. We’re looking forward to it.

“John (Snape, joint-manager) and I went to watch Daventry against Leamington the other week although I think it will be a different team. You can never read too much into pre-season games but it gave us a few good pointers.

“It was a nice playing surface and it will be a tough game but we will focus on ourselves, prepare properly and set up to make sure we do the right things.”