Football Everybody will have to fight for their place in a new-look Ely City side – according to director of football, Sam Turner.

Since Turner was brought in to work alongside manager Brady Stone and assistant Martin Grey, there have been a series of changes in personnel at the Unwin Ground and he insists that nobody will be assured a place in the starting line up this season.

He said: “Everybody is going to fight for their place in the team, nobody will be able to walk into our starting line up, they will have to earn it, week in and week out.

“We’ve got the makings of a very good squad and it is going to be very competitive, we want the players to push each other.”

Turner was speaking in the wake of back-to-back friendly defeats for the Robins – at the hands of King’s Lynn Reserves and Cambridge City.

Goals from Richard Gammon and Sam Goodge on Saturday were not enough to prevent them going down 3-2 to Lynn, while they were unable to get past the City goalkeeper as they lost out 2-0 on Tuesday evening.

But Turner insists he is happy with the level of performance he has seen from Ely in the last two games, as they prepare for their first Thurlow Nunn Premier Division encounter of the season, against Walsham le Willows, on August 9.

He said: “Our last three friendly games have been against bigger clubs and that is something we wanted to do because playing against those sorts of clubs is a big test for us.

“It can build us up to be better and we want to be as fit and ready as we can for the start of the season.”

Before hosting Walsham, however, Ely have a final pre-season friendly to contend with, at Hardwick, on Saturday.

Turner says there will continue to be new faces in the squad as they settle on their best XI for the start of the season.

Ely City Reserves meanwhile, travel to Witchford on Saturday for another pre-season friendly. Kick off is 2pm.