THE only place to be this Saturday afternoon is the Ark Cancer Charity Stadium, as Basingstoke Town kick-off their Southern League Premier Division campaign against visiting Banbury United at 3pm.

It it exciting times for the Dragons, who come into the league opener on the back of an impressive run of five straight wins.

Manager Terry Brown along with Jason Bristow and Kevin Braybrook, have moulded together a young side hungry to make the town proud of them.

They play a brand of high tempo attractive football, which is sure to be a joy to watch this season.

Boss Brown is hoping for a big turn-out on Saturday to see his new chargers in action and said: “Confidence is high in the camp after our pre-season and hope the people of the town will come out and support the lads. I am exciting at what I have seen so far and everyone has done really well. I have the difficult job now of picking just 11, but it does mean I will have a strong bench."

Brown has added two more to his superb looking squad this week with the signing of Ashleigh Artwell, a former Reading Academy player, who has also played at Hayes and Yeading, as well as Dan Collier, who was with Brown at AFC Wimbledon.

Captain David Ray played for 10 minutes at Guernsey last weekend on his return from injury, but will not be in the starting XI and Town also have an injury doubt on striker Aaron Redford, so George Hallahan and Aaron Jarvis are likely to lead the forward line.

Visiting Banbury were promoted into the premier division and last weekend concluded their pre-season with an 8-0 win and the Oxfordshire outfit look to play the ball on the deck so it has the hallmarks of a great opening game.

Brown said: “Banbury and then Merthyr away on Tuesday night will give us a good test to see where we are. I want to win every game we play, but know this is not possible. I think we have a good team and we will see where it takes this season. I hope all the fans are ready for what I hope will be a great ride.”