Hillier believes Clacton's crop of youngsters can cause surprises this season

The Seasiders have had a major summer of change, with many experienced, senior players moving on to pastures news.

It means the club's best youngsters have been rocketed into first-team contention, alongside older heads such as Hillier, new skipper Adam Daniels and Kevin Coyle, who has re-signed after a short spell at Wroxham.

All will be looking to make their mark in Saturday's first Thurlow Nunn League premier division fixture at home to Thetford Town (kick-off 3pm).

Hillier, twice the club's top scorer and a former assistant manager, admits his young team-mates face a steep learning curve in an "unforgiving" league.

However, he firmly believes there is enough talent and ability in the squad to cause a few upsets along the way.

“There are a lot of young players here and it’s a work in progress, but I do believe there’s a lot of potential," said Hillier, who first joined when the club was Clacton Town in 2001/02.

“Everyone is expecting the worst – certainly from the outside.

“On the inside, though, (manager) Tom (Gooder), myself and some of the older lads are trying to be positive and saying that as a team we’ve got ability and potential.

“Yes, we haven’t got much experience but with younger lads you get lots of enthusiasm, pace and work-rate.

"That freshness and raw ability counts for a lot.

“I’d certainly like to think we’ll surprise a few people along the way.

“They’re going to have to learn quickly because it’s quite an unforgiving league."

Hillier has agreed to make himself readily available in the opening part of the season, to provide some much-needed experience within the young group.

He is building up his fitness and played all of Saturday's 3-1 pre-season friendly defeat at Little Oakley.

“It was tough and, for me personally, my first 90 minutes," said the former Colchester United youth-teamer.

“I’ve said I’ll help out as much as I can, in the short term, and then we’ll see how it goes after that.

“I hope to offer a bit of experience.

“I’m not going to run around all over the place but hopefully I can use my brain to help to people and talk to them, to guide them and be positive without shouting and screaming.

“They’ll make mistakes, invariably. But we want to encourage them and do things the right way.

“Hopefully the three or four of us older heads can help them and steer them in the right direction.

“I’d like to still play and help out, because I still enjoy it.

“But I’ll probably take it week by week and see how things go.

“I will get fitter and have hardly trained in pre-season, because of work.

“It’s just a question of getting fitter as I go along."

Hillier knows his team-mates well, having coached most of them in the past, in addition to now being in the team alongside them.

And he says one in particular stood out on Saturday - defender Brad Westley.

“Brad has been superb and our best player in pre-season," he said.

“He never looks in any danger and his pace gets him out of trouble. He’s got a big future.

“He’s comfortable at this level and if he wants to he can play higher. It’s up to him how far he wants to go."

Hillier, who has made over 350 appearances and scored nearly 180 goals, is good friends with new Clacton boss Gooder.

In addition to playing and taking some training sessions, he has also been working hard on recruitment during the summer.

“Tom’s a very good coach and he’s going to keep the same kind of standards as (former boss) David (Coyle)," added Hillier.

“I’ve known him a long time now and I think the lads here have all been impressed with him and his vision for the future."