Jack Cook believes the togetherness of the Wealdstone squad was a big part in the success of last season - and could be again this time around.

The club retained 14 of their squad that finished the National League season in 13th place, still their highest finish for 37 years but with one win in the last 10 games seeing them slip away from the play-off places.

It meant a familiar look when the Stones gathered for day one of pre-season training, something that Cook found a real plus.

Speaking on the club's social media feeds, he said: "We’ve managed to keep a lot of the same players that did very well last year and we’ve got a few more to come back. 

"We’ve got a big group which is always positive. It raises the level of training and the competitiveness. 

"It’s good to have the numbers like this on the first day.

"We’re a good close group, we enjoy doing things away from football together and hopefully that continues. 

"A big part of the success we had last year was the togetherness we had."

He also hopes that the familiarity between the players will allows the focus to be more on fitness, giving them a head start come the opening fixture.

The 29-year-old said: "A lot of the work last season was about getting the players up to where the management want us to play. 

"Everyone knows that now and so hopefully we can kick on in the early part of pre-season and it won’t need to be as much about patterns of play and how we want to play. 

"We’re the same group and hopefully we can be a bit more focused on fitness and hit the ground running."

Assistant Manager Matt Saunders admitted they are still looking to add to the group but are in no rush.

He said: "The reason we haven’t delved into the market is because we can’t get deals done at this stage.

"We’re in no rush and no panic because we’ve got 16 players that we know can do a job for us in this league.

"We’ve just got to be patient and it’s not the first time we’ve been in this position so we know what to expect as a club, as a management team and as fans, we know that our deals will be later in the window.

"We’ve got a really strong group together that we believe in and we will look to add if and when we can."

Wealdstone will find out their National League fixtures on Wednesday at 1pm.