DORCHESTER Town boss Glenn Howes will be full of respect for the “unknown quantity” of North Leigh when the Magpies open their new season at home tomorrow (3pm).

Howes’ men embark on a fresh Southern League Premier South season looking to avoid being sucked into a relegation battle for the fifth time in six campaigns.

Recruitment has therefore been strong and made early, with the exception of midfielder Jordan Ngalo – announced yesterday and arguably the strongest signing of the summer.

All things considered, Dorchester have enjoyed a largely positive pre-season and Howes feels he can now be “judged” as manager after building a squad of his own design.

READ MORE: Jordan Ngalo joins Dorchester Town 

He told Echosport: “We can be really judged on this.

“It’s no secret when we came in in November time it’s incredibly difficult to get players in.

“When you come to the end of the season in the summer, players are having their heads turned, their contracts have expired and there generally is more movement.

“It gives you an opportunity to sit down and have discussions with players. This summer’s done that.

“The players at the club are players we particularly want and we can be judged on that as a management team.

“You can clearly see the direction of where we want to go, what we want to do and how, which is really important for Dorchester.”

He added: “There’s an unknown quantity about North Leigh coming into the league.

“You have that momentum that you bring with you when you go up. We’ve experienced that previously in terms of achieving back-to-back promotions.

“You get used to winning games, which is a habit. They’re going to be extremely dangerous, that’s for sure.

“They’ve achieved what they’ve achieved on merit, so it’s going to be a really difficult afternoon for us.”

Tiago Sa (ankle) and Charlie Gunson (knee) are the Magpies’ only injury absentees.