SWINDON Supermarine manager Lee Spalding is hoping to welcome another Football League club to the Webbswood Stadium this summer following the addition of Hellenic Premier Division side Longlevens to their pre-season schedule.

Marine will host professional neighbours Swindon Town on Friday, July 5 – making it 26 years in a row that the fixture has been played – before travelling to face Cirencester Town, Highworth Town, Banbury United and Frome Town before the new Southern League season gets under way on August 10.

In amongst the away fixtures, Marine will host Longlevens on July 16, and Hungerford Town a week later.

As well as Richie Wellens’ Robins hopping over to the Webbswood, Spalding is hopeful an arrangement can be agreed with another professional outfit, as Marine look to hit the new season in top condition.

Spalding said: “We’re 90 per cent of the way there with friendlies at the moment.

“We’ve got Swindon coming here on July 5, and we’ve got Cirencester Town away and Highworth away.

“We’re hoping to get another Football League club down to our place too. That would be really good.

“We’re still waiting for them to confirm. It’s a case of us waiting to see what they want to do rather than us telling them.

“That would be a good friendly to have at our place, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with that one.”

And while pre-season is shaping up well already, so is the Marine squad, according to the manager.

Spalding is keen to introduce a few more fresh faces into the fold, but only to strengthen what he already has, as opposed to the complete overhaul that was required last season.

The Marine manager believes his squad is in a much better place to avoid the poor start they suffered last season and even go on to challenge the top 10 for a play-off spot come the end of the campaign.

Spalding said: “All the players that were there at the end of last season have committed again, which is brilliant.

“And we’ve got two, potentially three, new players who we’re speaking to at the moment.

“It’s just a case of seeing if we can financially tie up a deal and get everything sorted early for the new season.

“We’re hopeful we can bring a couple of new players in, but it’s not a re-building process anymore. We’re just looking to bring players in to strengthen because we did most of the hard work last season by getting the players to commit to this season.

“It’s looking very positive already and I’m looking forward to getting started.”