Lee Hall has high hopes as Tooting & Mitcham prepare for season start

The midfielder is one of only three faces remaining from the Terrors' squad last season as new manager Craig Tanner undertook a complete summer overhaul.

The former Tooting captain has brought in experience with the likes of Frankie Sawyer and Colin Hartburn and youthful enthusiasm  in the form of Harry Knock - a combination Hall thinks will stand them in good stead.

"We are confident," he said.

"It is a whole new team and we have a good mix now, with some experienced players and then youngsters as well.

"Some people may be happy for us just to stay up but going off the back of pre-season we want to push.

"The budget is not the greatest, we all know that, but we all want to play and we are definitely going to go for it and not just settle for mid table."

Wins over Chessington & Hook United, 4-0, and a Crawley XI side, 2-1, in the past week ensure Tooting go into this Saturday's season opener at Hythe Town with only one pre-season defeat, against Norwich's FA Youth Cup winning side.

And Hall believes Tanner - who at 27 is one of the youngest managers in the league having been forced to retire through injury in December - is well on the way to bringing the good times back to Imperial Fields after two seasons of turmoil and discourse.

"He is on the way to bringing that back," added Hall.

"Even though this is the first time we have played together as a group we all knew each other from playing against each other over the years and the banter in the changing room is decent.

"And training under Craig has been very fun as well.

"The days are gone where pre-season was just lots of running - there's been a lot of ball work and it has been quite enjoyable.

"He has done some very good things because he has been a player himself until recently, he knows players want to be doing ball work and don't want to go running all of the time."

The Terrors' first home game is against Herne Bay next Tuesday.