MANAGER Carl Abbott cannot wait to finally get Evesham United’s season underway two weeks after other local clubs kicked off.

The new Robins gaffer kicks off his tenure with a home clash against Paulton Rovers in Southern League Division One South on Saturday (3pm).

National North and Midland Football League clubs began a fortnight ago with teams at the level above getting underway last weekend.

The delay at step four was down to a smattering of clubs being required to take part in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup but Abbott reckons his new-look squad is ready to rumble.

“Pre-season has been good, I cannot complain at all really,” said Abbott.

“There was a bit of a furore over the results against Gloucester (lost 7-1) and Rugby (lost 4-0) but we were quite relaxed about that.

“It is not nice to be on the end of those scorelines but when you are using 23-24 players and incorporating the under-18s as well it is not a true reflection of where you are.

“We have treated the past four games more like competitive fixtures, making changes at the right time and that has yielded three wins and a draw against good opposition. We are quite content about where we are now.

“Coming out of pre-season everyone is as good as they can be and keen to get started.

“Paulton is going to be very tough, we will be in for a hard game but it is one we are looking forward to.

“It feels like pre-season has gone on forever, we are one of the last leagues to start and I feel left behind a bit, we just want to get going now.

“Some of the leagues have played three games and it feels odd that we haven’t started yet but it will be on us soon enough.”

Evesham then travel to Larkhall Athletic in the league on Wednesday (7.45) before welcoming Harefield United in the FA Cup on Saturday, August 24.