Halstead Town manager Mark Benterman is looking forward to moving his team’s summer preparations on as they play their opening pre-season game tomorrow.

The Humbugs hadn’t planned to have any games until July 18, but Benterman feels his players’ progress has been rapid enough to allow them to put an extra fixture into the list.

They will be playing Essex and Suffolk Border League side Tiptree Jobserve on the artificial pitch at Thurstable School and the Town boss feels the time is right for the first game.

He said: “We’re ahead of schedule because the boys have been training really hard and they are ready for a game.

“The boys have come back fitter than we expected and we’ve already been doing some organisational work with them.

“It will blow away the cobwebs, but we’ll take it slowly.

“We have 20 boys who have been training hard and we want to give them some minutes on the pitch.

“They have been looking sharp in training, but they need game time now and we’ll be looking at some different combinations and at our team shape.”