Vale of Leithen manager Ian Flynn assesses a frantic summer of player departures and arrivals at Victoria Park

Vale have been relegated in each of the past two seasons and Flynn admits that makes it harder to get new blood in.​

"I’m trying to sign players but it’s very difficult to attract them because of the situation the club has been in the last few years,” he told the Southern Reporter.

"I think there are only four players who were here last season who are still here.

"So basically it’s a brand new team and it’s going to take a while before it clicks.

"I still need to bring players in. We are still three or four players short for, never mind the squad, the starting 11.

"But it’s very difficult at the minute because what you’re faced with, trying to pick up players that have left other clubs, they don’t commit.

"They wait until pre-season has come and gone, exhaust all their avenues of where they want to go and train with different clubs.

"It’s a very hard sell. I think I underestimated how hard it would be to attract players to the club.

"I don’t think we’ve had a good amount of people at training consistently to gel a team yet.

"I expect the Kirkcaldy & Dysart game will be very difficult for us. Their manager Craig Ness has been there for a while so he’ll have had his players that he wanted to keep signed up towards the end of last season.

"They’ll have done a full pre-season and we’re miles behind in that department but it’s not an immediate fix which is very frustrating for me.”

Vale, who currently have 15 signed players, played two pre-season friendlies in recent days – a 2-2 home draw against Kirknewton AFC last Thursday and a 5-1 home loss to Edinburgh United on Tuesday.

When asked about his target for this season, Flynn added: “My aim is to be competitive in every game and try and look for a solid middle of the table position.

"Right now I would take one place above the relegation zone, I’d snap your hand off for it.

"But I think we will improve. The whole group – I’ve got three other coaches there – we’ll have to encourage each other to get to where we want to be.

"I do think we’ll turn it round. But we’ve got to get standing up, never mind walking before we run.

"We’ve got to get up on our feet first.”