It's been a summer of change for the Otley Town with twenty-two new faces brought to the club by new first team management duo Harley Hirst and Chris Holland.
With only 7 members of last season's relegated squad choosing to resign with the club for 23/24, recruitment has been top of the agenda for Hirst & Holland. Losing so many players was disappointing, says Holland:
"We expected some players to move on but we were hopeful of maintaining a core and building around it over the summer. It's natural in amateur football that players explore their options and move on for a variety of reasons. The most disappointing aspect of this for Harley and I was the number of players who shook our hand and gave us a commitment only to ultimately move on a matter of weeks later, that was disruptive to our planning. From there all you can do as a management team is make sure the players coming in are better than those going out and we're confident that we've met that criteria with some of the new additions. Ultimately we only want to work with players who want to be at the football club, so it was better to see those players off early and replace them."
An open trial day in early July unearthed several new arrivals for the club. Courbon Carr, John Dewhurst, Bailey Flaherty, Callum Elvidge, Ethan Sharpe, Lewis Jennings, Jacob Johnson, Isaiah Parke and Ethan Wood were all offered places at the club off the back of their performances on the day. Dewhurst, Flaherty and Sharpe all join the club from Bradford City EDS, while Elvidge is a former Goole U21 wingback. Wood has been in full time football as a Pro Elite Academy scholar, while Johnson is a member of Guiseley's academy side who played under Holland at Thackley AFC last season.
Hirst commented on the success of trial day;
"I was really happy with the response to our player showcase, one thing the club desperately needed was quality recruitment and we’ve certainly achieved that. We’ve recruited for all 3 senior teams and also been able to facilitate our brand new under 23’s. The quality we’ve signed as a direct result of the player showcase proved it's success."
Experienced West Yorkshire League players have also been added to the mix with Oliver Carter, Isaac Turner and Ant Friend joining from Headingley AFC. The goalkeeping ranks were bolstered by the additions of former Calverley stopper Jack Holroyd and Thornesians keeper Simeon Pickering.
Holland was quick to bring members of his promotion-winning Thackley AFC side with him to the Showground. Matthew Lofthouse, Brad Longhorn, Joe Priestley, Josh Sheffield, Reece Pickering, Archie Brown and Craig Sinclair all completed their moves after Thackley chose to fold their West Yorkshire League side at the end of last season.
Holland; "It was never the plan to pick my entire Thackley team up and bring it to Otley but I developed such a strong squad there that I knew I wanted to continue working with some of them. With four adult teams here I'm happy we were able to provide football to some really talented footballers after Thackley made the decision not to run a reserve team next season. We had to be very patient with Brad as he attracted semi-professional interest, and we've also fended off step five approaches for Josh Sheffield to get him over the line which speaks volumes to the potential of the project we have in place here. Talented youngsters such as Archie and Reece have first team potential and will thrive getting regular football in our reserves or under 23 sides."
Turks and Caicos Islands international Ras Diamond represents another quality additional to the squad having spent the 22/23 campaign playing semi-professional football at Yorkshire Amateur and Nostell MW. But it was the retention of experienced heads such as Darren Munday and Mitchal Lambert-Tuthill that was most pleasing to the management team after the raft of departures.
Holland; "The players that have remained have been superb. Daz unfortunately has been injured throughout preseason but his experience and qualities speak for themselves and he'll be a huge part of our efforts this season. Mitch has donned the armband for us on multiple occasions since Harley and I came to the club and is an important voice in the changing room. Harry Hawkins is thriving with his new team mates and I think we're set for his best season yet if his performances to date are anything to go by. There isn't anyone in the group now who we have any doubts over, the team is starting to click on and off the field."
Recruitment isn't over with a trialist included in the squad for the final preseason friendly of the campaign on Wednesday.