Buxton boss Gary Hayward aims to continue momentum as season starts

Hayward’s men won all eight of their pre-season friendlies to give them some strong momentum going into the new campaign, with no competitive football having been played since an FA Trophy first round defeat to City of Liverpool on December 8.

Their last win saw them beat Leek Town 3-1 on Saturday and Hayward is now looking forward to the competitive action getting under way, with the Bamber Bridge game followed by a trip to Grantham on Tuesday.

He said: “Pre-season has gone really well for us and it’s pleasing because we’ve come up against some strong opposition.

"Obviously results don’t matter overall but you can’t do any more than win eight games out of eight, so it gives us some really good momentum both in terms of performances and getting good minutes in the legs.

"Bamber Bridge is a tough start but with them you never know which Bamber Bridge team will turn up – they always look to play football but hopefully we’ll have too much in the tank.

"It's then actually a good time to go to Grantham as their ground is so open and windy that playing them when it’s warmer can be better for everyone, but again it’ll be a very difficult game.”

It’s been a busy summer in terms of player ins and outs at the Tarmac Silverlands Stadium, as the Bucks look to build on what looked as if it would be a promising 2020/21 season when it was curtailed with Buxton lying third in the table after eight games.

Hayward said: “We kept the nucleus of the side but have been able to hand pick the players we wanted to replace those released and I’m really happy with the squad we’ve put together.

"A lot of credit has to go to my coaching staff and the board who have helped a lot while I’ve been spending time in hospital over the last few months.

"We expect to have one more in by the weekend, a player from the National League, but overall the lads are really stepping it up in training and we’re raring to go.”