Rangers increase their playing budget

Stafford Rangers today revealed manager Greg Clowes has been given "a little bit more" to boost the budget used to bring in his 21-man squad.

Clowes will start to add the finishing touches to his playing personnel when he returns from his summer holiday in Spain next week.

But the Rangers boss already has a significant amount of his team in place and has had slightly more cash to help land his top targets.

The star performers from last season's squad have re-signed to stay and have been supplemented by nine new arrivals at Marston Road.

And chairman Mike Hughes admitted it's taken more money to land the likes of Jimmy Turner, Courtney Pitt and Danny Quinn.

Hughes said: "Greg knows what his budget is and he will run the team according to the restrictions that are in place.

"It's probably a little bit more than he started with last year and he's assembling his squad from that."

Rangers are looking to improve after finishing a disappointing 16th in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League last season.

Long-term, they still harbour hopes of climbing back into the Blue Square North and maybe even into the Premier.

They were relegated from the Premier in 2008 and the North last year but Hughes accepts it will take time to bounce back.

He said: "We are looking for an improvement on last season and we would be disappointed if we didn't finish in the top half.

"We would accept anything else as a bonus, we are still taking the attitude of not putting people under pressure.

"We have stopped the rot last season and now we are looking for consolidation and improvement, certainly at home.

"We regard ourselves as a Conference club and we are playing at a level below where we feel we should be.

"Our aim, over the next two or three years, is to get back to where we feel we belong."