When Adam Lakeland set out rebuilding his King’s Lynn Town side at the beginning of the summer he knew there’d be a price to pay.
Seven days away from the opening National League North game and the Lynn boss is reaching for the paracetamol because of the selection headache he has brought upon himself.
Lakeland’s track record when it comes to recruitment has been good – it saved their season last time around - and the summer intake looks no different, as anyone who saw the midweek performance against Northampton Town will know.
His problem is choosing a starting XI for Warrington's visit next Saturday.
“After that tonight I have no idea what that’s going to be, to be honest,” he said after a 2-2 draw that was highlighted by an excellent second-half display that was as gutsy as it was assertive and bold.
“We've worked really hard the last five weeks, and in the off-season before we came back in, to assemble a group of players that give us a chance of being competitive and with that comes a lot of headaches.
“If you look at Dylan (Crowe) he is obviously a super, super, super player down the right hand side, but Cian (Ronan) has been outstanding and he was outstanding when he came on again today.
“Then you have got Dylan who can play on the left as well as Freddie (Sass). We've got obviously JC (Josh Coulson), Greg (Taylor), Macca (Kyle McFadden) and we've got Tom Wilson who's back in training on Thursday - four centre halves to take two, maybe, three shirts.
Exciting wide man Ross Crane (Image: King's Lynn Town FC)
“And I can go like that right through the team – Bart (Cybulski), Gold (Omotayo), Jonny (Margetts), you’ve got Ross (Crane), you’ve got the lads who play in the middle of the pitch. So we've got really good options and depth, so picking that team for the Warrington game is going to be difficult, but that's a good thing to have because I remember times last year where probably outside of the 11, maybe 12, we were really short and we're certainly not in that situation going into the league opener this time around.”
Midfielders Josh Hmami, Josh McCammon and Tommy Hughes will be hoping to stake their claims when Lynn play their pre-season finale against a Luton Town XI today (3pm) - but by opening day there could be a new face in the dressing room, with Lakeland hoping to add to his squad early next week.
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