I AM now very much looking forward to the new season, writes columnist Peter Mitchell. 

Things are progressing slowly at the County Ground, however. Considering Phil Brown’s early appointment, it would have been nice to have seen a few more new faces on board by now.

Town have signed just six new players, but notably have yet to bolster their central defence with Olly Lancashire and Dion Conroy still not figuring in any pre-season games we seem extremely vulnerable in that area. especially as doubts must remain on the long-term fitness of both players.

Also, apparently Marc Richards is likely to be out for at least two months so that leaves us even lighter up front, relying now being on Scott Twine and new signing Elijah Adebayo.

The most recent signing of strong midfielder Jak McCourt, who last season scored a cracker against us for Chesterfield, looks like a real plus, together with highly rated Steve Alzate on a year long loan from Brighton. Apparently 

Rohan Ince has been released by Brighton. What a signing that would be for us, but perhaps stepping down to League Two is a drop too far for him.

There are positive sounds about a lot of work having gone into formation and structure so hopefully that will yield dividends this season as our defence has certainly looked anything but robust and stable during the past couple of seasons.

On Saturday Town entertain Portsmouth but whether that will give us any real clues as to the opening line up on August 4 is another matter. 
Phil Brown is due to meet the chairman, hopefully to convince him strengthen our options at centre-back and in attack.