ABERYSTWYTH Town manager Matthew Bishop could take plenty of positives from his side’s opening pre-season friendly win at Cymru Alliance champions Caernarfon Town last weekend.

Goals from trialist Carl Lamb and new signing Will Bell earned the Seasiders a 2-1 success, and Bishop and assistant Wayne Jones were pleased with the performance of their new young squad.

"This was only the first game in a programme leading up the TNS game on 14 August, but I was pleased with the performance on Saturday," manager Bishop told atfc.org.uk.

"There were certainly more positives than negatives. It was the first game for our new group of players against a good side, the majority of whom had won the Cymru Alliance League last season."

He added: “We took 10 or 15 minutes to settle as I think the boys were so keen to do well, but once we settled down we kept the ball well, moved it well, created chances and probably could have scored more goals than we did.

"We made a lot of changes in the second half, but the players who came on also showed their quality. We are still looking at a couple of new faces, and they also did well on Saturday.

"The important things for me were integrating the squad, getting minutes on the pitch, and seeing some of the things we’d been working on coming out in the game.

"The players showed eagerness and energy off the ball, which will be important going forward.”

The Seasiders’ starting line-up at The Oval included five of Aber’s summer signings, along with the four players from last season, and Aberystwyth Town Academy goalkeeper, 16 year old Olly Fairbrother, who enjoyed a mature performance.

“Winning is important, but it was also great to see young Olly Farebrother making his first team debut at the age of 16. He did himself no harm at all. He was given a chance, and I’m delighted for him," said Bishop.

"It was also good to see the group of players gelling. The dressing room afterwards was a good place to be and the players were together - and this is very important.

"Nobody’s getting carried away, but we’ll hopefully move on from here and get better.“

After a positive result and performance, Matthew Bishop’s new look squad play their second pre-season friendly at old mid Wales rivals Caersws on Wednesday, ko 7.30pm.

The Cymru Alliance club beat Hereford club Westfields 2-1 last weekend, with goals from Mike Collister and Rhys Thomas, and beat Carno 1-0 on Monday, courtesy of a Josh Hartrick winner.

"The players will get more minutes on the pitch and we’ll look to carry on where we left off on Saturday," Bishop added.

This Saturday, the Seasiders travel to play Cymru Alliance side Porthmadog, before visiting Cymru Alliance newcomers Penrhyncoch on Friday, 29 August.