Ashford United fans have plenty to look forward to as the club get ready for next season.

Owner Don Crosbie is confident supporters will like the squad new boss Kevin Watson is getting together.

And there’ll be a new pitch at Homelands, too, as the Nuts & Bolts prepare to replace their 3G.

Striker Gary Lockyer, who’s joined Faversham, is the only confirmed exit so far.

Ashford are yet to publish their retained list but there have been encouraging talks.

“Kevin is flat-out putting the squad back together,” said Crosbie.

“There’s quite a good retained list of last season’s players and we’ve been speaking to numerous potential targets that we like.

“There’ll be players that won’t fit into Kevin’s plans, which is always sad, but we’ve spoken to every player.

“Certain players have been invited back and have agreed to come back and want to come back.

“I don’t think we had any players other than Gary who wanted to go but obviously we want to strengthen.

“The shape and the play will change.

“Different managers have different shapes and patterns of play so obviously there will be certain players that won’t fit into that style and that’s why you bring different players in.

“But I think our fans will be more than happy with the squad and the team for next season.

“I know I’m more than happy with what I’ve seen so far.

“I don’t think we had a settled side all last season, to be honest.

“We started the season with a makeshift team and this year we want to hit the ground running.

“We want our team to be fully established come August when we kick off.

“It’s very important you’ve got a team who have been playing together, who know the style, otherwise it’s like a training exercise all the time and it becomes frustrating.”

Work on the replacement 3G at Homelands is set to start at the end of the month, once the last of the local cup finals have been completed.

The six-week project will give Ashford a state-of-the-art surface for the start of the 2023/24 Isthmian South East campaign.

“It will be six very long, hard weeks, but we’ll get there,” said Crosbie.

“Where Homelands is the major stadium in the whole of the Ashford borough, we hold all the cup finals here, which steals four weeks of our programme off us.

“We can’t rip the pitch up until May 29, where we would like to have ripped it up on April 29.

“The contribution to the district from Homelands is phenomenal but it puts me and the club under more pressure, which we’ve got to absorb.

“We’ve had two meetings with the contractors and they’re all ready to go.

“We’ll get it done. We always do.

“It’s a frame of mind. You must have the frame of mind where nothing is impossible.

“It might take a little bit longer but nothing’s impossible.

“If you give up and you lose that impetus, then you’ll fail.

“As the Germans say, there’s never problems, only solutions. You’ve got to look at solutions rather than think about problems.

“The people in life who exceed and achieve are always the ones that have a slightly more positive attitude and perhaps think outside the box for solutions.”