It has been a busy summer for Max Mitchell but the new Welwyn Garden City is pleased with the way his squad has come together and begun to gel.

He stepped into the role in May after Nick Ironton stepped down but has been able to retain a number of that squad as well as add plenty of new faces.

And with the Southern League season fast approaching, the Citizens boss is seeing his plans begin to flower.

He said: "It’s been a lot of work but the harder you work, the luckier you get.

"It was an emotional end to last season, I understand there was a lot of emotional damage with players, but we are past that now and we’ve got to look at the present and plan for the future a little bit.

"In terms of the application and the way things have gone, we are where we need to be at this moment.

"We are always going to be a management team that will look to improve but we’re happy with where we are.

"We’ve now got the bulk of a squad but we will always look to improve.

"We’ll probably see one or two additions over the next three weeks but we’re not going to rush into it.

"We are not just going to sign players willy-nilly, they have to fit the team profile and culture we’re trying to set.

"And we want to play a certain way so we can’t rush into it.

"This is non-league, players will come up, but we’re nearly there."

That is a statement that is hard to dispute on the evidence of their 6-1 friendly win at home to Baldock Town.

They took the game to their Spartan South Midlands League opponents, scoring some fine team goals, and delighting the watching support.

It came on the back of a 2-1 loss to step three Haringey Borough on Saturday , another showing that brought contentment to the boss.

Mitchell said: "What we asked from the boys was another performance to go on the back of a good performance away at Haringey.

"It was a different test and I told them this was going to be their biggest test of pre-season so far and we reacted well.

"We were more aggressive, on the front foot and the first three goals came because we were more aggressive and got where we needed to get.

"When you are at home you need to be more energetic in certain areas and we were.

"We have done a lot of work on the training pitch and we were good.

"We moved the ball quick, that is something we are always asking the players when we are in possession.

"We scored some really good goals and it could have been more in all honesty.

"Pre-season is about finding your way. We have had a big transition with players but I feel recruitment has gone really well.

"The players are still blending, still gelling, but pre-season is not about results, it really isn’t, it is about the performance and we are using this pre-season purely as an exercise.

"But we want to get into good habits early, we kept players on a little bit longer than previously, and it paid off."