Luke Goddard admits he had to be ruthless this summer

The KMJ Mortgages Stadium outfit are preparing for their second season in the Midland Premier Division and have bolstered their ranks with half-a-dozen impressive new recruits during the off season.

A headline deal viewed as a coup for Alport is the addition of hometown boy Jordan Evans, 26, a former Fulham, Oxford United and Wrexham midfielder, who has most recently played in Wales with Newtown and Bala, among others.

Also through the door is his younger brother Kieran Evans, an attacker, former AFC Telford and Market Drayton goalkeeper Ash Rawlins, Drayton defender Joe Care and Alport are working on a deal to confirm the signing of former Shrewsbury midfielder James Rowland, 20.

“With the success we had last season in the FA Vase we let the league go a little bit,” said Goddard, whose side reached the Vase quarter-final last season and finished 12th in the league.

“We said we’d be ruthless at all we did and that includes recruitment, to get six in for us to challenge in the league we’re in this season. We’ve brought in Jordan and Kieran Evens, goalkeeper Ash, a centre-half Joe Care from Drayton with some trialists around.

“We’ve done what we wanted to, changed the mentality, hopefully it’ll pay dividends.”

Goddard added: “It’s really important we don’t recruit the wrong players here, we get plenty of offers for those who’ve been at a decent level.

“I don’t want egos or prima donnas, we’re ambitious but limited to what we can spend, like all clubs should be. We’re sustainable with a good community model but want good players to bring in crowds and be attractive.

“Jordan was a main player to bring in and Rowlo has been superb. There’s no pressure with him. He contacted us, we’ve known him from his Shrewsbury days when we tried to loan him. He’s fallen out of love with the game, typical of lads that get released. He tried the Welsh system but didn’t enjoy it.

“He needs the love and confidence back and he’ll go back up the leagues. We’ll be very good for him, it’s a nice fit.”

Alport impressed as a much-changed squad went down to a 2-1 defeat against Telford on Saturday.

Goddard said: “It was a bit worrying (we had players away) but I knew it from when we put the date in the diary with Luke Shelley and Paul Carden at Telford.

“It was important we did the friendly for the link we want with Telford and hopefully we still gave a good account of ourselves on and off the field.”