Two leave Town as manager tweaks squad

Thoughts can tentatively turn towards the new campaign, with the NPL Premier Division campaign set to get underway on Saturday, August 14.

And with that in mind, it was confirmed this week that two players – Shabz Mohammed and Jack Leonard – are leaving the club and are available for transfer.

The midfielders had featured sporadically for the Highwaymen, but now is the time for them to both play regular first-team football, something we couldn’t guarantee for the forthcoming campaign in the NPL Premier Division.

“They’re both great lads and have put in plenty of effort for the club,” said Turnbull.

“Unfortunately, at this stage of their careers they need to be playing first-team football week in, week out.

"We’ve got a tremendously competitive squad here, and we just can’t guarantee that for them at this point.

“They have conducted themselves brilliantly during their time here and we wish them nothing by the best for the future. Hopefully they will find their next club quickly.”

Mohammed and Leonard are now available for immediate transfer. Everyone at Craik Park wishes them good luck for the future.

Turnbull is adamant that the squad available to him is already good enough and simply needs fine tuning to be more than competitive in the upper reaches of the division.

“In my head, it was always going to be a tweak,” he said.

“We have a very good squad but every year you need to change it up; if you stand still others will step up. But it was never going to be big changes.

“I’m looking for the best squad I can get, quality players who would represent the club properly.”

A settled squad will return for pre-season towards the end of June, giving them over seven weeks to get back up to match speed.

“We come back June 22 which gives us seven weeks for pre-season,” added Turnbull.

“We will need that length of time after having so long off. But it will give us the ideal start to what will hopefully be a season we finish and achieve our ambitions in.”