DORCHESTER Town are due to report for pre-season in the first week of July, manager Tom Killick has revealed.

It means the Magpies will have a two-month summer break between the 2023/24 campaign ending and their first session of the summer.

Killick has scheduled Dorchester’s return for Tuesday, July 2.

Friendly-wise, Dorchester have been frustrated in their efforts to secure an EFL club in their summer activity.

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Efforts to arrange a game with National League side Ebbsfleet also fell flat, but Dorchester have locked in friendlies with Eastleigh and rivals Weymouth.

Dorchester will announce their full programme in due course, although Hamworthy United and Bashley have already announced friendlies with the Magpies this summer.

Speaking to Echosport, Killick said: “First session we come back 2nd of July.

“Then, we’ve got a pretty full pre-season programme that we’ve arranged which includes games against Eastleigh and Weymouth.

“Like everyone, we were hoping we might get a couple of League clubs, but that wasn’t to be, which is a little bit disappointing.

“I’m still pleased with the games we’ve got, they’re going to provide a good test. Particularly in terms of the Eastleigh and Weymouth games we’ve got higher-level opposition.

“I looked to get between six and eight. We did have another one with Ebbsfleet that was arranged.

“They were going to come down but they’ve had to cancel that because they couldn’t arrange stuff they needed to, in terms of accommodation.

“I hope to end up with a minimum of six and potentially one extra.”

Killick also outlined his plans for training, with the caveat that his squad is not yet finalised.

“I think like everyone it’s very much a staged process with the initial stuff being fitness-based,” he said.

“Then, closer to the start you start focusing on more technical elements, in terms of how you want to set up.

“Apart from anything else, it’s quite difficult to be precise about that sort of stuff until your squad is finalised.

“Often, recruitment can carry on throughout pre-season.”

Discussing how recruitment has gone thus far, he added: “I’m aware there’s always a difficult balance between trying to identify people early and getting business done.

“By the same token, ideally you always want to have a little bit of scope to make additions further down the line in terms of pre-season, because sometimes things become available that can be very advantageous.

“If you use all your resources, you can be prevented from pursuing those opportunities.

“The other side of it is that if those things don’t come up, then you’re a little bit short.

“Sometimes it’s always a bit of a balancing act. I’m pleased with what we’ve done so far but certainly I would hope between now and the start of the season that there would be more additions.”