New boss Naim Rouane highlights key areas for Lancing

The former Lancers captain was named boss earlier in the summer and has been delighted with how things have gone during pre-season.

Lancing scored impressive friendly wins over higher league opposition in both Worthing and Three Bridges.

Those victories came after Rouane managed to keep the core of last season’s squad together as well as bringing several familiar faces back to Culver Road.

Lewis Finney, James Rhodes, Alex Fair, George Fenton, Tom Caplin, Omar Bukleb and Kane Louis (player/assistant manager) have all agreed on returns to the Lancers.

Rouane is pleased to have assembled a similar squad to what he captained to Peter Bentley Cup glory in 2016.

Along with adding some exciting young talent for forthcoming season.

He said: “I managed to keep the core of the squad that has been at Lancing for some time now and players that I played with when we lifted the Peter Bentley Cup four years ago.”

“Pre-season has been really good for us. Myself, David Altendorff (assistant manager/head coach) and Kane Louis had a clear playing identity and philosophy that we wanted to instil from the off.

"Our plan was then to identify the signings that would fit this style but, more importantly, good personalities and characters.

“We feel we’ve managed to recruit well and are happy with the squad in place.

“We won’t get ahead of ourselves and we’ll continue to learn and be better week by week.

“I wanted to make sure we brought in high quality youngsters that have energy and players that have great attitudes and are willing to learn, so we’re delighted to have added James Beresford, Mo Juwara, Conrad Honroe, Mitch Hewens, Jack Badden, Josh Swietlik to the squad also.”

Despite assembling a strong squad, Rouane is refusing to set any targets ahead of the SCFL Premier Division campaign.

Instead he just wants his side to play the right way and have a great ethic throughout.

“The aims and ambitions are to improve the players as footballers and people, bring happiness with the brand of football we are trying to adopt and have a great team ethic all year round,” Rouane added.

“We’ll take each game as it comes. There’s no other targets and we’ll look to perform the right way week in, week out.

“Also, there’s no room for negativity at Lancing and I’ve let the players know that from the off.”

Lancing start the new season at Eastbourne United on Saturday before welcoming Horley Town for their first home fixture four days later.

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