Faversham Town retain the services of loyal centre-half Matt Bourne

FAVERSHAM TOWN joint-manager Phil Miles has retained the services of loyal centre-half Matt Bourne.

The popular stalwart has won Supporters’ Player-of-the-Season and Players’ Player-of-the-Season awards for the past two seasons and in May he collected a bottle of champagne to celebrate making his 400^th appearance for the club.

Confirmation of Bourne's return means there will be strong competition at the centre of defence, with Ryan Huckle and Josh Dorling at the club, having previously played for Gillingham and Maidstone United respectively.

The club report back to pre-season training at Salters Lane tomorrow night, ahead of the visit of League One side Gillingham on Saturday 6 July, with a number of trailists among those taking part in the session.

Miles and Danny Chapman are now keen to strengthen the strike force ahead of the coming season, with veteran Carl Rook and youngsters Rolando Onu and Jack Sellens already on the books of the Isthmian South East Division club.

“I know the supporters will be as delighted as we are that Matt has agreed to return once more,” Miles told www.favershamtownfc.co.uk.

“He’s a terrific player, who has been a great servant of this club for many years now, and it gives us a strong-looking defence as we start pre-season training.

“We have a number of potential strikers that we are talking to but I don’t want to put any names out there at the moment.

“Our aim is to have a competitive squad when the season starts, and we’d rather take our time to get the right people than rush into signing players for the sake of it.”

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