Boss Andy Sinton is aiming to take AFC Telford United into their debut season in the Blue Square Bet Premier with a squad of up to 25 players.

Sinton has already made five summer signings and has dropped broad hints that more are to follow in the coming days.

Telford’s promotion to the top tier of non-League football means that the restrictions of the transfer window are imposed on them for the first time.

The Bucks boss will not be able to add any permanent signings to his ranks between the end of August and the start of January so wants to make sure he has all bases covered now.

“I want a squad of anything from 22 to 25 players,” said Sinton.

“Ideally I’d like to go into bat for the start of the season on August 13 with certainly 23 players, probably 24 and possibly 25 – albeit within the constraints of the budget we’ve got.

“I’ve got ongoing talks with a couple of boys who are already training with us that I’d like to sign.

“We’re still looking elsewhere but the search for players is now pretty much narrowing down.”

Meanwhile, Telford’s pre-season preparations continued last night, with a side mainly made up of trialists winning 7-2 away at Ellesmere Rangers.

New summer signing Craig King got on the scoresheet to follow up his strike in the 9-0 win at Rocester on Tuesday, while a Philip John penalty took his pre-season tally to three.

But the other five goals all came from trialists eager to impress Sinton – Nathan Hicks, John McKenna, Jack MacKreath, Darryl Taylor and Dwayne Spence.

The rest of the squad were put through their paces with a draining physical workout at Wrekin College under the watch of coach John Psaras and physio Rudy Farquharson.