Manager John Reed has made no secret about wanting to take the club into the Blue Square North (Conference North) league and his three weekly training sessions should see the team looking fitter than ever.

He said: "We have a set programme and the programme is 30 per cent harder than last year.

"Me and Scott Maxfield sat down and figured it out.

"We know what we've got to do, what work we need to put in.

"It is going to be hard but we are going to have to grit our teeth and hopefully do our best.

"The key thing is come August 16, these lads will be ready to do battle."

Local lad Mark Balfe made it into the Buxton squad last season and Reed is once again opening up the team's training sessions to anyone who thinks they may be good enough.

Training takes place at the Dorothy Hyman stadium in Barnsley on Mondays from 6.45pm to 9pm, Saturdays from 11am to 1.30pm and on Thursdays from 6.45pm and anyone interested can just turn up.

Having led the team to the play-off final in his first season in charge, Reed is now more determined than ever to take Buxton to the next level and his pre-season regime is solely geared around that.

"All the pre-season organisation that has been going on has been so we can build the club up and to allow us to keep on the shirt tails of everybody," he said.

"It is going to be very, very difficult next year but we are looking forward to the challenge.

"We over achieved massively last year. Don't get me wrong, I won't be dropping my standards and I don't want the players to drop their standards.

"We have no thoughts of just making the numbers up.

"We know where we wanted to strengthen the team and we strengthened it.

"We bought these new players (Steve Brodie and Mark Hume) and they have given us that strength."

Many of the clubs Buxton will face in the new season have big money backers, something Reed is keen to see happen at the Silverlands.

"We are not in that bracket with the big teams," he said. "Guiseley and Bradford have spent a lot of money.

"Chris (Brindley) has always bent over backwards to help me but we need somebody to help him.

"Chris puts everything he can into this club but if another two or three people got involved we might get another £500 a week to get three absolutely quality players.

"The crux of the matter is we will struggle to get anywhere near in the conference unless we can compete with the big teams.

"I would love to see us get into the conference. I will never give less than 100 per cent for the club and I think that is one thing the fans saw last year.

"I've only got one football club in my heart at the moment and that is Buxton."