SLIMBRIDGE’S Adam Mace believes unity within the squad has worked wonders in the past – and can do so again in next season’s Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West.

The full-back, who scored in his side’s 2-2 draw with Southern League Premier Division Frome Town on Saturday at Thornhill Park, does not believe Slimbridge will be chasing the title this season. Then again, nobody said Leicester City would go on to win the Premier League 12 months ago.

And, as the pre-season progresses, with the Swans playing Brimscombe and Thrupp tonight at Thornhill Park and then Tytherington Rocks away on Saturday, Mace thinks the side can build on their unity to achieve a good position in their second year at Southern League level come the end of next April.

It is all starting to happen at Slimbridge in the past two weeks as manager Leon Sterling gets down to the nitty-gritty of deciding who will be in his squad for the start of the new campaign.

The Swans lost their opening pre-season warm-up by 2-0 at Bradford Town last Saturday week but they went on to beat Longlevens on Friday and, with a fresh set of legs, they turned out again the next day to draw with Frome Town.

Mace said: “You don’t read too much into pre-season, it is just getting games and getting ready to go again.

“It is early days and it is all about just getting back into it and you have got to get the match fitness back.

“You can do all you like on the training field – and we have done a fair bit – but it is good to just come out and enjoy it and play with a bit of freedom.

“The couple of boys on trial did well but it is early days.”

The loss of twenty-goal striker Paul Fahy to Evesham at the end of last season has left a gap up front but 21-year-old Mace said the team can pull together as they did in their debut year where, as everyone thought they would go straight back down to the Toolstation Western League where they were in 2014/15 before achieving promotion, the team stayed up – and stayed up well.

Mace added: “We are not on mega bucks and a couple of boys have had a couple of offers and declined them because we are a close-knit family in a way.

“There is nobody who really sticks out (as the leader). Everybody has a bit of a laugh and are all involved.

“We have got a really good squad and there is nobody that anyone dislikes.

“I have been in sides before where there are always that one or two who do not get on and it is nice not to have that.

“It makes you enjoy your football. A couple of my very good friends in the squad are local and I grew up with them and you always have a go at each other but once that final whistle goes, you are back in the showers and that is that, really.

“It is a nice squad to be around. You don’t ever feel there is any animosity around which is good.

“It shows with teams like Leicester and Iceland that it is not really who you have got but how you play together.

“We have got a lot of very good players but, as a group, we can play better because we all know each other’s games and play towards that.

“I don’t think we are going to win any titles yet so it is just regaining the stability we have got.”