The New Saints turning their attention to next season - preview

The New Saints already have an eye on next season even though they still have three games remaining of the current campaign.

Saints, the runaway JD Cymru Premier champions, head to the Go Goodwins Stadium to face Caernarfon Town tonight (7.45pm).

It's an opportunity for Saints to try and respond positively to last Friday's 2-0 home defeat against Colwyn Bay, a result which ended their eight-game winning run in the league.

Head coach Craig Harrison said that winning the league early - TNS were confirmed as champions after a 2-1 victory at Connah's Quay Nomads on March 3 - has enabled the club to start putting plans in place for the 2026-27 season.

That includes preparing for another European campaign with Saints looking forward to being involved in the Uefa Champions League qualifying rounds in early July.

"It's a real positive getting the league won with five or six games left," said Harrison. "We can have one eye on Europe and get some planning done.

"We can organise pre-season, we can look to our recruitment, we can just look forward, because it's such a quick turnover when you finish the end of the season.

"Predominantly, the lads only have three or four weeks off maximum, and then we'll have a six-week build up for pre-season ready for the Champions League game on July 7 or 8.

"It's such a quick turnaround, so it really helps us winning the league as early as possible to give us extra preparation time, and it has done over the last two or three weeks."

On tonight's match with Caernarfon, a first game for TNS since losing against Colwyn Bay - their first league defeat since New Year's Eve - Harrison added: “No-one likes getting beat. Certainly, I don't like getting beat, and the club and the players don't like getting beat.

“We've had a good week's training to date - the lads will be ready to go."