CYMRU NORTH bosses are planning to bring the New Year in with a real bang.

The Football Association of Wales revealed a new 15-match format will kick off in January and the likes of John Haseldin at Holywell and Gresford Athletic’s Steve Halliwell can’t wait.

Gresford have been busy playing friendlies - the latest ending in a hard-fought 2-1 win against Chirk AAA.

Director of Football Halliwell has Eddie Maurice-Jones back alongside him in the Clappers Lane dug-out and says he is ‘quietly confident’ of a good season.

The format for that season, which will start in mid-January, will be a 15-game affair, with each club playing each other once.

A Football Association of Wales statement read: “Some sides will have 8 home matches and 7 away matches. The clubs who receive more home matches will be determined by a random draw.”

“We can’t wait,” said Halliwell. “We’ve been training, kept the lads together and brought some good players in.

“I’m not talking about a target of where we’d like to finish but we’re quietly confident.”

Max Peate returns to Gresford while Mike Pritchard, Craig Pritchard, Barry Torrence, Sam Molyneux and Dave McIntyre have all signed on for the new campaign.

“The lads are really enthusiastic and once they knew the games could be played, their ears really pricked up. It’s been a long time and they just want to play,” added Halliwell. “We’ve got a big squad so we’ll try to keep everyone.”

Clubs have been restricted to using 13 or 14 players in their pre-season friendlies and Halliwell added that all players have had a chance to impress.

Owen Roberts and McIntyre did that against Chirk as they hit the target, hoping to stake a claim for a starting role when the Welsh League Cup kicks off a week on Saturday.

Holywell boss Haseldin just wants to make up for lost time and get his football fix back on a Saturday afternoon.

“It’s been eight months and I’ve missed it, the lads have missed it because players love routine,” said Haseldin, who has been impressed with how the club and players have reacted to all the new Covid-19 protocols.

“We’ve followed all the procedures, adapted our sessions and done everything we should have done from day one.

“I’ve been in football for 30 years and not having football on a Saturday is hard. That’s why we made sure we rang the players regularly to check if they were okay.

“We’ve had a few ups and downs and we’ve lost a few players who have gone to play in different leagues.

“We’ve also brought in a few - some of the lads who won the league with Prestatyn last season including Dave Hayes and Ross Weaver while Dan Sullivan’s come from Rhyl and Danny Andrews from Flint.

“We’ve also got the youngsters who we gave a chance to during out season in the Welsh National League. We knew that the start date wouldn’t be far away when the news broke about Cymru North and South being given elite status.

“We just hope we can gel when we start off in the cup.”