LEE Spalding admits he won’t have to cut his Swindon Supermarine squad as much as first feared following Saturday’s 1-0 pre-season defeat to Wealdstone.

Bradley Bubb’s second-half strike separated the two sides at the Webbswood Stadium as Supermarine played their second pre-season game following last week’s win against Hashtag United.

And Marine’s latest encounter injected some confidence into Spalding, who is pleased with his side’s progress with less than three weeks left until the start of the season.

He said: “I’m not concerned about wasting my time and effort thinking about who I’m going to get rid of.

“I’m more worried about working out how we’re going to progress going into the season.

“At the moment we’ve got six or seven injured, that’s as a result of getting back into the routine.

“I do need to trim the squad slightly, but probably less than what I thought.

“Everyone is doing well, and everyone has a realistic chance of playing and getting minutes.

“It’s more a case of getting everyone fit and up to speed come the start of the season.”

Saturday’s game provided Supermarine with the ideal opportunity to prepare for further challenging encounters against Football League outfits Forest Green Rovers and Swindon Town.

Testing individuals, shape and fitness is part of Spalding’s plan before they start their first campaign in the third-tier of non-league football.

Spalding said: “It was a good test for us given that Wealdstone are playing in the division above us.

“It was going to be a day where we were going to be up against opposition that we could be facing the equivalent of throughout the year in terms of quality.

“It was a good chance to have a look at the individuals and the shape of the team. Fitness was a key part of the game too, so I’m pleased with how things went.

“We were against better players and when you look at the calibre of their players you can see that they have a good team in place.

“I don’t believe we were outplayed at all. I think we gave a really good account of ourselves on the day and created some really good opportunities to score.

“We defended really well and worked hard as a team.”