GUISELEY boss Mark Bower has made three more signings on the eve of the new Vanarama National League season

Goalkeeper Tim Deasy, left back Marcus Williams and striker Jordan Preston have taken the number of summer recruits to eight ahead of Saturday’s tough opening game at Eastleigh.

Deasy, 30, was Altrincham’s player of the year and will contest the number one spot with young Daniel Atkinson.

Deasy, who had a spell with Bradford Park Avenue, is the third Altrincham player to join the Lions. Striker Michael Rankine and winger Nicky Clee were Guiseley’s first summer additions.

The signing of former Scunthorpe left back Williams, 30, who has been without a club since playing in India for Kerala Blasters, is a timely addition as last season’s regular choice Danny Lowe is sidelined with a stress fracture of the foot.

Twenty-year-old Preston has caught the eye in pre-season after being released by Blackburn Rovers. He was a prolific scorer for their Academy side before enjoying a productive spell in Scotland where he scored 18 goals in 42 games for Ayr United.

Bower is pleased with his latest additions. He said: “Tim and Marcus have lots of experience while Jordan is a young player with a lot of promise.

“I am really pleased to have all three of them join us. It is important we have good competition for places and that can only be good as the season progresses.”

The capture of Preston means that Bower now has four strikers at his disposal as he looks to address one of his team’s main failings of last season, a shortage of goals.

Rankine, last-season’s top scorer Adam Boyes, the mercurial Oli Johnson, and Preston offer Bower the chance to use different combinations.

“Just five or ten more goals would have made a big difference to our league position and I feel we have players who can boost our tally this season,” he said.

“Michael Rankine is a strong target man type who is good in the air and on the ground, while Adam Boyes will want to build on last season, Oli John son provides that touch of magic and Jordan is a youngster with goals in him.

“He has a real striker’s mentality and is also prepared hard to work hard for the side. He gets into good positions to score goals and has good pace, I believe he is good enough to score goals at league level and I hope think he will do well for us.”

After nine friendly matches, Bower is now ready for his new-look squad to kick of the new campaign.

They open away to ambitious Eastleigh before successive home games against Wrexham on Tuesday and relegated Dagenham & Redbridge next Saturday.

Bower said: “I am glad to get pre-season out of the way. There are so many ins and out, trialists coming and going and all the time you are trying to get the balance right.

“In the friendly games you are always checking the amount of game time players are getting and you are striving to get the right mix of training and matches.

“I looking forward to the start of the season and this is the third-successive year that we have started with an away game.

“Eastleigh are an ambitious club who have made a lot of big signings and they want to be one of the clubs challenging for promotion.

“We know we have to defend well but we got a 1-1 draw there last year and I am hoping we can produce another good performance on Saturday.

“It will be a new-look Guiseley team with quite a number of debutants, but I feel we are stronger than we were last year

“We have a squad that enables us to play different formations and adapt to the challenges we meet.”

Guiseley still have a couple of trialists training with them, including former Bradford City midfieldman David Syers and Bower hasn’t ruled out the possibility of at least one more signing, but for now his focus is on Eastleigh and Saturday’s opener.

“Looking at all the different games in the division we are the team given the least chances of winning by the bookies. We know Eastleigh have a lot of quality, but we got a draw their last year and lets hope we can get a good result this time.

“With two home games to follow it would be the perfect boost for us.”