AFC Telford United have put the finishing touches to their pre-season programme by lining up a home friendly with former Conference rivals Chester City.

The League Two outfit will be heading to the New Bucks Head on Tuesday July 17. That fixture has forced the Shropshire Senior Cup semi-final at Market Drayton to be put back 48 hours to Thursday July 19.

The Bucks had also been hoping to arrange a game on July 14 with either Morecambe or Stockport as a memorial to legendary striker Jack Bentley, who died last month.

But that has proved impossible, and chairman Lee Carter is now planning to stage some kind of celebration event around the Chester game instead.

“It will be nice to have a League side to open the campaign and I’m sure it will be a good test for us,” said Carter.

“We’ve had to move the Shropshire Senior Cup final to fit it in, but the Shropshire FA were fine with that and it will now be on the Thursday.”

The addition of the Chester game means Telford now have a nine-game pre-season fixture list – though chairman Lee Carter revealed the home game with Wellington Amateur on July 31 and the trip to Malvern on August 2 would see the squad split.

A number of players from the club’s youth team – including the likes of Elliott Durrell, Matthew Wood and Lucas Bladen – will be featuring in those games.

“It’s a good balanced programme, with some testing games against Chester, Kidderminster and TNS and a couple of games where the manager can take a look at the youngsters,” added Carter.

Pre-season programme in full: July 17 Chester (h), July 19 Market Drayton (SSC, a), July 21 Gloucester (a), July 24 Shropshire Senior Cup Final, July 28 Kidderminster (h), July 31 Wellington Amateurs (a), August 2 Malvern (a), August 4 Marine (a), August 7 The New Saints (a).

By Chris Hudson