Jay Saunders has explained why he decided against taking Tonbridge on a pre-season weekend away this year.

Angels have been to Yorkshire for the past two years, facing Farsley Celtic and Scarborough Athletic in friendlies.

The option was there again but boss Saunders decided to keep his squad at home.

“To be fair, the club have been great,” he said. “They asked if we wanted to go away.

“We had a really good trip to Scarborough last year, which was great for team-bonding and everyone enjoyed it.

“But I just felt it affected our pre-season schedule slightly.

“We went up on the Friday and had a meal, which was great, and then played the game and went out on the Saturday night.

“But you’re then rushing to get back on the Sunday and by the time we came in for our next game on the Tuesday I felt it had taken its toll on us.

“I felt the options we had this year didn’t work out for us and could affect our schedule and I didn’t want to do that because it’s important we get a good start.

“The club have said they’ll put something on for the boys for team-bonding, which is great.”

Tonbridge have decent pre-season fixtures to look forward to.

Seven of their nine friendlies are at Longmead, including matches against Football League clubs Bromley and Charlton and National League Sutton and Ebbsfleet.

“We’ve worked really hard on our pre-season schedule,” said Saunders.

“I’m not going to lie, most managers with 3G pitches will tell you it’s hard to get Football League clubs to bring their first team down - they tend to bring the 23s.

“We wanted as tough a pre-season as we could get and we’ve got some good games in there.

“A lot are at home but I think that helps the club with revenue and with the players we’ve brought in, it’s important to get used to our pitch because it is a big pitch.

“It’s never easy organising pre-season but me, Tom Parkinson (assistant manager) and Lloyd Blackman (coach) have put a lot into it to get the games we have.”

Tonbridge, who are back in training tonight (Thursday), visit Corinthian for their first friendly on July 6 (1pm).