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The first pre-season in the dafuge challenge can be difficult, and especially so when you're managing in Cornwall, as the pool of players available to sign is a lot less than if you're near a major population centre. You also need to be really aware of how much your scouting budget is eating into your finances, while still giving yourself the best chance to get good players in to stay up. After all, relegation in your first season means the challenge is over.

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I joined the club and there were quite a few players whose contracts were expiring in a week, and ultimately they were all let go. Most of them weren't really good enough, whereas Tyler Harvey, James Hamon and Will Dean were too good for us, all refusing to sign contracts, and they've all gone on to join bigger and better clubs. Stewart Yetton and Ryan Dickson are Cornish football legends, and they both joined the backroom staff as assistant manager and coach after retiring.

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All those departures meant I only had five first team squad members remaining, so I had to get busy in the free agency market, as well as pick up as free loans. The signings ranged from pure squad depth to genuine first team stars, some of which I'll show below. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pick up any Cornish talent, and most of the players were released from clubs in England's South West, like Devon, Somerset or Dorset.

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Above are the best five players at the club, as you can see we're definitely trying to outscore the opponents with a superior midfield and attack. Cameron Antwi and Toure Williams are both new signings, I recognised midfield was somewhere we needed to be strong so although they aren't the best going forward I thought they both gave me a solid base. Simeon Okoro, Andrew Neal and Louis Rooney were three of the players that had contracts beyond my first week, and they'll be the starting front three in my set-up this year.

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I decided to just arrange friendlies against local Cornish sides, to make a bit of revenue in terms of ticketing but most importantly to just boost fitness and morale heading into a busy fixture.

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We're predicted to finish in 20th this season, which would put us just out of the relegation zone, but hopefully we can do a little better than that, for my stress levels if anything. Our fellow promoted team Hendon is expected to do much worse than us, and have been rated the weakest team in the division, so clearly we're doing something right in terms of recruitment.

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We'll hosting Hemel Hempstead Town for our first fixture, and we have five in total in a relatively busy August. Hopefully we start the season and the save on the right note.