Following St Neots Town Football Club's relegation back to the United Counties League, it has been all go at the Premier Plus Stadium.
St Neots’ first action was to appoint a new manager and now, just over a month into his new job, Cameron Mawer’s feet have hardly touched the ground.
His first appointment was former player George Thorne as his assistant.
George, 30, younger brother of former Saint Ollie Thorne, joins the club from Bedford Town, where he spent last season after returning to the beautiful game after injury curtailed his professional career at a young age.
His club career began at West Bromwich Albion in 2009, making 10 appearances before he spent time out on loan away from the Hawthorns with Portsmouth, Peterborough United, Watford and Derby County.
He then joined the Rams permanently in 2014 and went on to make 57 appearances after recovering from an ACL injury before suffering a broken leg in the last game of the 2015/16 season against Ipswich Town.
Upon regaining fitness and being able to return to playing, he joined Luton Town on loan until the end of the 2018/19 season.
The following season he joined Oxford United, initially on loan and was released in the summer of 2020 when George’s career came to a sadly premature end.
During his career, George was fortunate enough to represent England at Under 16, 17, 18 and 19 level and was part of the UEFA Under 17 European Championship winning squad which defeated Spain 2-1 in the final.
Also backroom, Mawer has re-appointed Craig Lambert as physio, Mick Hunt as kitman and Gary Dean as goalkeeping coach.
On the playing front six new players have been signed and midfield general Liam Hook who announced his retirement at the end of last season has decided to delay his retirement for another season.
Most of the new signings played at Step Four last season, and they include goalkeeper James Goff (St Ives Town), defender Kyle Lincoln, and midfielders Magloire (MJ) Muyembe and Sam Johnson (all from Kempston Rovers), Josh Brown (Potton United) and Tommy Reynolds (Baldock Town). Further signings are likely to follow prior to the season.
An exciting and challenging line-up of pre-season friendlies have been announced as follows starting two weeks on Saturday as follows:
July 1: Biggleswade United (H) – free admission
July 8: Stevenage FC (H)
July 13: Potton United (A)
July 15: Eaton Socon (A)
July 18: Deeping Rangers (A)
July 22: Biggleswade Town (H)
July 25: Norwich City U21 (H)
Report written by club president John Walker
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