As pre-season gets underway, we will bring you interviews with some of the coaching staff about their return to training and how the club is preparing for the new season.

First up, we caught up with Craig Lynch for his assessments on beginning pre-season and the difficulty with restrictions.

“Obviously, lots of different restrictions have been put in place. The main thing was getting everyone back together as they’ve had 3 or 4 months off which is practically unheard-of. We’ve had everyone back in and been getting the footballs out. Hopefully, we will get more idea on the guidelines from the FA in regard to training and more importantly a date for when fixtures can come out and getting the league going again.”

He was quick to tell the website that he was impressed by the levels of fitness from the players upon their return.

“You would hope that the players would keep ticking over and they’ve all shown that they want to be here. I believe that they are playing for the right reasons and they have been keeping themselves fit. However, getting them back in so they can get the footballs out is a lot different to being out on a bike or running on the grass. Not many of them having probably been doing that much ball work.”

Lynch also expects that the season will be tougher this time round after the strong surge in form that put Morpeth right into the contention for the playoffs.

“The last thing that teams will remember about us is that we were 10 games unbeaten and pushing right up there. I think it would have come down to the last game of the season. We had some big games coming up, we obviously had South Shields to play and FC United of Manchester to play at home; the teams that were first and second. I think teams will be more wary of us.

“You look at other teams who were at the bottom end of the league and see how they’ve strengthened for the new season so it will be tougher this year.

Looking ahead to the new season, he shared his view that the club will be aiming to challenge at the top of the table.

“Obviously, the group of lads we’ve got and the management, we are competitive and want to be right up there. There’s no question about it, we aren’t going in to make the numbers up.

“We didn’t do that last season like when we went to Warrington, first game of the season and I don’t think anyone other than us expected to win. Yeah, we quietened down a bit but then we were right back at it. We’ll be right back up there again.

Lynch was also eager to play down any concerns that playing games in a short space of time would have a detrimental effect.

“I think it will work out. I don’t understand why more games aren’t played earlier in the season. I think games on a Tuesday and Saturday will suit the lads. They would probably rather play on a Tuesday instead of training especially for a home game. Away game, it doesn’t really matter where you go, it’s going to be tricky but I think the lads will be up for it.”