Boss Steve Lovell is open to giving youth an opportunity at Herne Bay.

Mark Taylor is back at Winch’s Field and will manage their under-23s side after a productive 2022/23 season with Faversham.

Lovell wants to see Taylor enjoy similar success at Isthmian South East Bay which, in turn, could help them uncover a gem or two.

“I think under-23s are important at clubs like ours,” said Welshman Lovell.

“I’ll be speaking to Mark on a regular basis and he’ll be reporting back to me on the players who are improving and should be around the first-team.

“I’m all for giving youth a chance and, if there’s players good enough, then they’re old enough.

“It’s not a matter of ‘This is the first-team squad and there’s the under-23s squad’ - we’re all in it together. It’s one club.

“There might be one or two under-23s who start the season. You don’t know at this stage.

“Hopefully he can produce, have a season like he did last year and that’ll help us in the first-team.”

It was a busy weekend for Bay, who unveiled the summer signing of player-coach Liam Friend, the returns to the club of Dan Carrington, Troy Howard, Mobolaji Dawodu and midfielder Danny Walder, and the arrivals of goalkeepers Josh Bexon and George Bentley plus Kane Rowland, Archie Burnett and Daniel Haastrup.

Lovell revealed: “It hasn’t been a busy week, really. It’s built up from the start when we took over.

“I didn’t, obviously, advertise any of the signings until we’d got quite a few in and then I thought we’d do them over a few days.

“That’s what we have done - and there will be another three or four coming out at the weekend.

“It’s all building up to a nice squad.

“There’s a mixture of experience and youth, with boys that I know and have worked with before.

“No one from last year, really, has stayed. So I wanted to make a complete change and it’s nice that we have got 16, 17 or 18 players all in who are my players.

“We can work with them and try to get them into shape, ready for the season.”

Carrington and Dawodu were part of Bay’s 21/22 squad which won promotion to the Isthmian Premier through the play-offs while winger Howard spent time with them and Margate at Step 3 last term.

Lovell said: “It’s important you have players who are local. They’re people fans can look at and have an affinity with.

“It’s nice to get a few local lads in. It makes it easier, as well, for them regarding training and games.

“It made sense to get local boys in and to be able to work with them.”

Carrington can play in defence and midfield while Dawodu primarily features in midfield, although he has also played up front and in defence.

Lovell says he’s open to seeing what position will suit each player best in pre-season.

“I think pre-season is all about that,” he noted.

“Obviously, they’ll want to play in certain positions but I’ve had it at previous clubs where you sign players in one position but, over time, you see they’re versatile and can fit in somewhere else.

“If you’ve got two or three players in the team like that, it helps you and gives you more options when you’re picking a shape to play or want to change the shape during the game.

“You don’t have to make substitutions necessarily to do it because you have players who can play in one or two positions. But everyone will be given a chance.

“There will be quite a few players there when we start in a couple of weeks’ time and it’s all about competition.

“People will see other players there, playing in the same position as them, and it’s up to them to prove they’re good enough to take the shirt when the season starts.”

Bay are due to begin pre-season training on June 27.