ACCORDING to Guiseley’s joint boss Russ O’Neill, his squad are in a “good place” following on from a flurry of pre-season fixtures.

His side returned to summer training around six weeks ago, however the squad were eased back into it and have been allowed to gradually build up their fitness.

And now, The Lions are well under-way in preparations for the new campaign having faced off with Ilkley Town, Yorkshire Amateurs and League Two side Bradford City in the past couple of weeks.

Having won two of their fixtures, the confidence is high and O’Neill is pleased with how things are shaping up.

He said: “I think we are in a really good place at the moment.

“I think looking back at recruitment, it was always a case of we need more goals throughout the team.

“The performances were good in spells last season but we just didn’t get the goals that we felt the performances deserved.

“In key moments in games you need somebody who is going to put the ball in the back of the net- not always when you’re on top, but at times where the game is going against you, then that always helps.

“If you have someone who can get you a goal out of nothing then you can get that extra point or three points in a game where you might not deserve it.

“So, we thought it was massively important that we identified brining goals into the team.

“We’ve got a tight budget; however, we feel as though we’ve got great value for money. We’ve now got a potential for goals all the way through the team.

“We got the additions we wanted, and I don’t feel we are too far away. We may add a couple more as the pre-season games continue to show us more.

“However, me and Marcus are pleased with how we are shaping up, and hopefully we can push for that winning mentality through the side going into the new season.”

O’Neill also stressed the importance of gearing his side up for full fitness as his side prepare to face Leeds United, and the new campaign.

He said: “It’s great to be back.

“We eased the players back into pre-season. We’ve been back for six weeks now, however for the first four weeks we only trained them once a week.

“And then we’ve upped it in the last two weeks to ensure the players got the right intensity levels prior to returning to a match scenario.

“When the first fixture against Ilkley came around the lads were extremely excited because they had a long time to wait.

"The first bit of pre-season is always about the running and hard work.

" And when the games come around the boys always look forward to it and the buzz returns."