WITH almost three weeks still to go before the start of his team's campaign, manager Marc Benterman feels Witham Town's players are reaping the rewards of a busy pre-season schedule.

Witham are getting ready for a first BetVictor Isthmian League division north season with Benterman at the helm and it has been a hectic summer so far.

The campaign gets under way on August 17 and the new boss has had to assemble a squad almost from scratch, but he is pleased with the progress that has been made.

Witham beat Benterman's former club, Halstead Town, in a pre-season friendly last weekend as ex-Colchester United striker Jamie Guy scored the only goal in a 1-0 win and they are due to step up preparations again with another fixture tonight.

Benterman is set to take his team to Haverhill Rovers ahead of a trip to Herne Bay on Saturday and he is pleased with how his squad is shaping up in their busy run of summer games.

He said: “We still have several weeks to go and we had players missing at the weekend.

“So we have players like Shami (Pedulu), Jacob Cleaver and Scott Kemp who would have made us stronger but it gave boys a chance to come in and impress us.

“We are not too far short of where we want to be.

“We’ve had a lot of game time and had four games in seven days last week – I don’t care who you are or whatever level you play at, that’s a big schedule.

“But the boys dealt with it and they’ll be fitter for it and we go again.

“After every game we are a little bit closer to where we want to be."