Hornets boss sets sights high - but key man departs

In a season which was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, the Hornets finished sixth in the 2019-20 Isthmian League Premier Division.

Di Paola, who oversaw the club’s return to pre-season training on Tuesday, admitted it would be hard to replicate that feat but said he hoped his side could ‘be competitive and play a decent brand of football’.

He said: “The objectives are the same as last season. We don’t want to be involved in any relegation fights. We want to be one of those top-half teams that are comfortable. It’s going to be hard to beat what we did last year so we just have to do as well as we can.”

Di Paola said the majority of the first team squad had returned to training, with a number of trialists joining the first session back.

“We had lots of numbers at the first session,” he said. "Over the next few sessions, we will look to whittle that down quite quickly so we can keep quality. With the season starting so late, it means we’ve got everyone available.

“It’s early days and we’ve got to manage the squad. There’s players who haven’t played for five months, so there’s a lot of rustiness there but they are working hard. There’s probably rustiness from us as a management team as well, so we need to get back to the swing of things... it was nice to be back with everyone.”