New Rochester United manager Andy Pierce expecting hotly-contested battle for Southern Counties East League Division 1 title as team start at home to Welling Town

Rochester United boss Andy Pierce is expecting their division to be extremely open ahead of this Saturday’s season opener.

Having suffered Division 1 play-off heartache last term, there has been a change at the top for the Medway outfit over the close season.

Pierce, who previously had spent two years in charge of Greenways, who groundshare at Rochester’s Rede Court Road home, has succeeded Michael Betts after the latter resigned.

Promotion will again be the goal for Rochester in a hotly-contested battle for the top places.

“Hopefully, this season - where SE Dons and Greenwich Borough, the big-money teams, have left the league - I don’t think there will be a lot between top and around 11th or 12th,” said Pierce.

“If you win 10 games, you can move to the top of the league.

“I think it’s the most open league in a long time. There have always been teams that would win it convincingly, it’s almost inevitable they’d win it.

“But there’s probably six or seven teams that could win the league.”

It has been an intense pre-season for the Spartans, who are ready for the competitive action.

They ended pre-season with a 5-1 victory over Tunbridge Wells’ EMC Academy thanks to Aston Freeman (3), Harvey Brown and Mack Reilly.

“We’re really excited,” said Pierce. “It gets to a stage in pre-season where it gets boring!

"Definitely on Saturday, it felt like we had got to that stage. Everyone is just excited to get going.

“We have training this week, and then, it’s all systems go against Welling Town.”

Freeman and Connor Watson are among the club’s signings but Pierce is also pleased to have kept the bulk of the existing squad together.

“When I took the job, the chat with Matt [Hume], the chairman, was about keeping as many as possible,”