David Artell and his staff will cast their eye over potential trialists in a match situation before they decide on some of their futures. The Alex boss recently stated that he is open to players coming in on trial as he looks to bolster his squad for the new season.

The club’s former players, Nicky Maynard, AJ Leitch-Smith and David Vaughan have all joined in with some pre-season training but that was more of a favour to help them with their fitness level. They won’t feature for us in the pre-season matches and are not on trial.

The Alex boss told us: “We will have a look at some trialists. I am open to that and I would like to view them on the pitch. They are footballers, so I would like to see them playing rather than just running and training.

“I think it is important to see them in a match situation because that helps with the overall assessment.

He added: “We have some of our former players training with us. That is more of a favour to them to help them ticking over. They won’t be involved in the pre-season games.”