GODMANCHESTER Rovers will begin their season on Saturday full of confidence and aiming for the top in the Eastern Counties League this time around.

Managers Nev Nania and David Hurst guided their team to fifth in the Premier Division last season after winning the Division One championship.

Now a tilt at promotion to Step 4 is the next aim as the club bids to follow in the footsteps of St Neots Town and St Ives Town.

“We have more than enough in the squad to win this league,” said Nania, talking exclusively to The Hunts Post this week.

“The squad is so strong that one of the problems will be keeping everybody happy.”

Goddy lost two key players during the summer with Jason King going to St Ives Town and Mike Hyem joining Huntingdon Town, but striker Russell Bull finally signed on the dotted line this weekend when the team drew with Cambridge City 1-1 – courtesy of a James Hall goal – and the former Royston player has convinced his mate, the ex-Oxford United and Cambridge City midfielder Mark E’Beyer, to pull on his boots again after a season out of the game.

Both players are Stevenage-based and much is expected from the pair.

“Bully could score us 30 or 40 goals this season and Mark is a very significant addition to what was already a very strong squad,” said Nania.

“Of course, Jason King and Mike Hyem are quality players and they will be a big loss but we have more than made up for losing them with the likes of Jack Watson coming in.”

On Saturday, when Walsham-le-Willows are Goddy’s first visitors of the new season, the returning winger John Turner will face a fitness test, while the midfielder Chris Hyem is also a doubt.

Goalkeeper Rob Mackney, who is due to have an operation, will definitely miss out, as will his brother Carl Mackney, who has been filling in during pre-season, but who hurt a shoulder last week.

On Saturday, against his own club, Cambridge City, the former Huntingdon loan goalkeeper Enol Ordonez played in between the sticks for Godmanchester – and after the game he signed for the club on loan.

Walsham, Saturday’s first opponents, were a top six team for most of last season and Goddy will follow that game up with a visit to Newmarket Town on Tuesday