Tuesday night at Paulton Rovers proved to be a busy one, with First Team Manager, John Rendell, announcing a flurry of new signings along with an update to his coaching team, and confirmation of the current retained list of players.

The evening started with the announcement of experienced midfielder, Kye Mountford, joining the Management team as Player Coach. Mountford, who signed for the club midway through last season as a player, will fill the space left by Gary Powell who has moved on to pastures new at Odd Down.

Before moving onto the new signings, the first bit of player business by Rendell involved the Rovers youth set-up, and after successful spells with the First Team squad last season, the Rovers Manager was delighted to promote three players from the Under-18 set-up to the First Team permanently. The young men in question were Ali Sen, Mason Harrison and Lewis Bond-Kendall, sending a clear sign that the club can now offer a pathway from Youth Team football to Southern League standard.

With the addition of the three Youth Team players, it was then time for Rendell to confirm the current list of players who had been retained by the club for next season. The current updated list is as follows; Adam Forster, Ben Prictor, Charlie Hitchings, Joe Hillard, Dale Evans and Ryan Gay.

Next came the new signings, and first to put pen to paper on the night was centre-half, Craig Allan. A former Rovers player, the powerful defender has bags of experience at this level, playing his football at Bideford last season.

With the ink barely dry on Allan’s paperwork, next up came a double-signing from Bridport in Braeden Symes and Ed Butcher. Symes is a young midfielder and an exciting prospect looking to prove himself at Southern League level, whilst Butcher, who also played at Street last season, is well-known for a great left foot with the ability to both score goals and create chances from midfield.

The final signing of the night also happened to be a former Rovers player – and an exciting one at that. Taking the Toolstation Western League Golden Boot last season with a phenomenal 39 goals in 44 appearances, the club were delighted to capture the signing of the highly-sought-after Ben Bament. Rendell will be looking for Bament to continue his red-hot form in the Southern League and help fire Rovers up the table.

With new signings still possible in the close season, the busy night was finished off with confirmation that club legends, Colin and Sue Parsons, will continue looking after the First Team kit. On Sunday, Brad Abraham became Rendell’s latest addition.

Malcolm Tucker