SATURDAY heralds the start of another soccer season and with batteries recharged we are raring to go.

After two-and-a-half years with the club I've assembled the best set of players since my return to St George's Lane and I would certainly hope we can mix it with the best of them.

The aim is to improve on last year's eighth place and target at least a top six spot -- above and beyond that depends on a lot of factors -- but this is certainly our best opportunity since I arrived at the club.

Anyone looking for title contenders need look no further than Crawley Town or Tamworth.

They will probably start favourites and Havant and Waterlooville will also fancy their chances, while Dover Athletic will be an unknown quantity.

If you look at Hednesford Town they have invested heavily in the team, and to be fair when you look at the players that Moor Green have amassed then perhaps their expectations are going to be a lot higher this year.

For our part after slogging our way through five-and-a-half weeks of pre-season everyone is ready to get going and the real business starts with the visit of Hastings United.

We will know how good or bad pre-season has been come 5 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, but I'm certain that in terms of quality this is the best squad we've had.

It's important to begin on a winning note and three points will set us up for a tough opening six weeks of the campaign.

This will be a key time for City because nearly a quarter of the league games will have been played and there is a heavy workload on the players.

Hopefully we can add a few more players to the squad and help shoulder the burden that lies ahead.

Stewart Hadley and Marc Burrow are injured which brings us down to 14 players so we will certainly be looking to boost numbers to cover ourselves.

During the summer we strengthened the midfield with the signings of John Snape, David Foy and Pat Lyons.

Their pedigree is good -- one from a championship winning side, another from a runners-up team and the third from the Nationwide Conference.

We will definitely looking for our midfield to be more creative this season and tidier in possession than we have been.

Throughout the team, from defence through to attack, we have key players and none more so than Mark Shail, Snape and Mark Owen.

We have to be careful with Owen because of his injury, but those three could play important roles for the club and we will be looking for them to show their ability.

Two-and-a-half years ago when I first came to the club it wasn't right and once we had been here a little while we realised the job was bigger than we first envisaged.

Now though after a lot of hard work there is light at the end of the tunnel and we have sorted out what we've needed to do.

The dressing room is now full of players desperate to do well for both the club and the supporters and we look forward to doing ourselves justice this season.