Whitchurch Alport boss Luke Goddard has admitted he is looking forward to seeing what impact new joint-chairman Ed Whitby will have on the Yockings Park club after his appointment was confirmed.

Whitby’s appointment was announced by the club last week – with fellow joint-chairman Ryan Jardine calling it one of the biggest signings of the summer – and is a director of ice-cream van manufacturer Whitby Morrison.

Goddard hopes he can bring some ‘next-level business sense’ to the club as they look to grow following their promotion to the North West Counties Premier Division last season.

“Ed is a massive Crewe fan and has ambitions at that club, but has seen what we’ve done at Whitchurch and thought he wanted some of it,” he said.

“We’re expecting him to bring his business sense to the club. It’s never a case of bringing in a money man who’ll start throwing the cash about – it’s about him using his business contacts when we need it.

“It’s about adding another branch to what we do here and even for daft things, like if we want to do a project at the ground he might have a contact who can do a favour for us, as we’ve had for the past few years.

“It’s another person for to do that. I’m sure he’ll start to come to home games and then see how we can make more money for the benefit of the club. It’s business nous needed because as I’ve said before, we’re going to be victims of our success sooner rather than later.”

Goddard, who settled his own future a fortnight ago, says his squad for 2018/19 is starting to take shape, but isn’t showing his cards too early ahead of a return to pre-season training.

“Squad wise, we’re pretty much there for the season,” he said.

“We haven’t released anything yet – I’ve seen clubs starting to release their signings but as you can’t officially sign anyone until July 1, we haven’t said anything yet.

“That’s why, until we get to July 1, I’m going to keep my cards close to my chest and then release all our news in one big go with a tweet announcing the Whitchurch Alport squad for 2018/19.

“On the back of that, we’ll start to release the news on certain individuals or through some features, for example, and do it that way.

“In terms of updates, there’s not really anyone who’s left – the majority of the lads have wanted to stay for next season.

“Danny Reid has left, obviously, as he’s retired and Mike Blundell, who was our top scorer in my first season at the club, will probably leave too. He’ll more than likely join Sandbach United.

“But everyone else has indicated they want to stay and will report back for pre-season on June 23.

“I’m happy with the bulk of the squad we’ve got and trust they can step up, but we’ll probably bring in four or five players into squad on top of the 14 or 15 core players of the squad who got promotion last season.

“We’ll add a few new faces but they will be proven players and potentially lads who will drop down the leagues to play for us.

“It’s up to us to make sure we’re competitive when we kick off and in that top 10 next season.”