MANAGER James Goddard is confident his Westbury United side will be able learn from the mistakes which saw them finish second from bottom in the Toolstation League First Division last season.

Goddard has also brought in a whole host of fresh faces, including strikers Conner McKay and Jamie Jordan, central defenders Jordan Pinder, Jordan Lawrence and Matt Jones and midfielders Peter Sturman, Ian Groves and Dean Caslake.

The manager is hoping their experience will bring will compliment the youthful side of last year as the look to avoid the bottom five of the league.

"We are hoping to better than we did last year and stay away from the bottom five if we can,'' said the United boss.

"We are a much more experienced side than we were last year, when we had a lot of youngsters but that means we haven't had any departures, the youngsters have gone back down to the reserves to get game time."

Goddard will also be hoping that his defence will have improved - last season they shipped a total of 98 goals in 40 games - and it is something he has addressed during pre-season.

"This year we have improved, they are more my team now, we keep the ball better and defending has improved 100 per cent, last year we conceded a lot of goals," he admitted.

"Anyone can beat anyone in this league, there are a lot of clubs who will be looking to go up, the clubs who came down will obviously want to go back up and the teams that were around it last year."

United start their campaign away to Almondsbury on Saturday (3pm).