Newtown boss Chris Hughes believes his side are in a better place this year - after keeping the core of his squad at Latham Park.

The Robins boss was speaking as his side returned from their close-season break having re-signed the majority of last season's first team squad.

But it was a different story 12 months ago with the club reeling from the departures of leading scorer Jason Oswell to Stockport County and club captain Shane Sutton to AFC Telford United over the close season, leaving a gap which Hughes believes took until November for his side to properly recover from.

"If you look at last season probably from November onwards when the boys gelled we did OK, in a couple of games we didn't have the luck that we maybe needed at the time, especially in the semi-final but looking forward I'm pleased we've got a few of the boys signed on," he said.

"It's all positive. Look where we were 12 months ago, we had some real blows early on in terms of players we lost but it's important we look forward. We've kept the core from last season which is important because it gives us that continuity and now we're looking to add those bits of quality and I've said it already that in terms of our resources, we know where we are in terms of that.

"But what we can offer is good facilities, a well run club, we're well organised and we're always hard to beat, so it's different things for different players. We want highly motivated players and those are the type of players we're looking to bring to the club."

Hughes also paid tribute to the club's local talent, with Craig Williams, Kieron Mills-Evans and Dave Jones amongst the Newtown based players in the first team squad, and said it was an important part of his plans for Newtown.

"That core's important, the local element is important with Craig and Kieron and Tom, Dave, Luke and the others, it's an important element of this football club, that's what it's built on."