Faversham Town boss Ray Turner was relaxed about the departure of midfielder Dan Lawrence to Herne Bay.

The wideman chose to return to his former club rather than remain with the Ryman League Division 1 South play-off finalists, with whom he was not a regular starter last season.

Turner admitted: “Dan wanted to go back to Herne Bay and wanted to play more regular football so I was not going to stand in his way.

“I want players to embrace competition at the club, nobody has a divine right to play. I kind of expected this might happen and we got Rhys Lawson in beforehand in case it did.”

As well as Lawson, Turner has already brought in striker Brendon Cass and he said: “I am not looking to add an awful lot to what we had last season. “I’m still waiting to hear exactly what the budget will be but once I know, hopefully the rest of last season’s squad will sign on and we’ll see where we are.”

Town will play Canterbury at Winch’s Field on July 13 before visiting Corinthian on July 27 and Chatham on August 3. They play host to Gillingham on June 29 and then go to Maidstone on July 16.

Turner was hoping to firm-up a fixture for July 20 this week and added: “We are trying to stay off the pitch too much during pre-season as there will be a bit of work going on in the run-up to the season.”