LIVERSEDGE continue to sign high-quality players in their push for promotion from the Northern Counties East League Premier Division.

They have brought in yet another ex-Bradford (Park Avenue) player in experienced attacker Nicky Boshell, as well as young defender Adam Porritt, who was once part of Huddersfield Town's academy.

And after the coronavirus pandemic denied rampant Sedge the chance of going up last season, they will be strong favourites to complete the job this time around.

Asked if anything less than promotion in 2020/21 would be a let down, Rimmington said: "100 per cent. It would be a massive disappointment not to get it, given where we left last season and how we've started pre-season (with four consecutive wins).

"We've just signed Nicky Boshell and Adam Porritt. Adam was released by Huddersfield but he's played at a good level since with the likes of Tadcaster Albion.

"We also brought Ross Daly in earlier in the summer, who played at a higher level with Avenue like Nicky, as did Paul Walker, who's just absolute class.

"We already had Jimmy Ghaichem, who was a professional at Peterborough United, and we've now got John Cyrus, who's played at Conference level with Altrincham.

"The chairman's been amazing and put everyone on contracts which just gives stability for the lads we do sign.

"It means we've got a lot of good players fighting for places, as we've kept our stars from last season too, like Joe Walton, Alfie Raw, Joe Kenny and Oliver Fearon.

"I hope we keep going from strength to strength."

It was familiar faces Raw and Walton who got the goals in Sedge's fine 2-1 win over Stockton Town last Saturday.

Discussing pre-season and the challenges to come, Rimmington said: "We should have beaten Stockton by more but we did well, because they were FA Vase finalists a couple of years ago.

"They had more possession than us, which I'd have expected on their 3G pitch, but they never cut us open at any point.

"We play Tadcaster this weekend (today). They're a quick, lively young side, so we'll face a different test against them."

Another team Sedge have come up against in pre-season is Irlam, who they will also face in the FA Cup extra preliminary round on Tuesday.

Talking about the previous game against them, a 2-0 home win, and the upcoming one, Rimmington said: "Irlam didn't cause us many problems and we should have been three or four up early on.

"But they might have had a few very good players missing and with us being away in the FA Cup, it's always going to be nip and tuck.

"To be honest though, the FA Cup is a bit irrelevant as we're not going to win it. I'd rather give it a miss and just concentrate on the league."

Hopefully, all upcoming fixtures will be able to go ahead as planned, with Rimmington admitting that the club are preparing for all scenarios due to coronavirus.

He said: "Last Saturday, the chairman put us all up in a hotel (for the away game with Stockton) and gave the lads some money to go out with, which was nice to have, even though we're in these tough times.

"All the virus stuff has made things really difficult. A few players have been poorly in pre-season so we've been strict on that.

"We've cancelled training and made sure those players got tested before we resumed. Thankfully of all the tests we've done so far, none have come back positive.

"But we would cancel games if needed."

Rimmington added: "I was pretty ill myself a month or so ago, and I had to spend time in isolation, but fortunately it wasn't that (coronavirus).

"But everything we do is down to the virus and we're taking as many precautions as a club as we can.

"We can't use the changing rooms and I've made the lads sit outside. We temperature check them all when they come to training too.

"I've tended to keep away, as I'm 55 now and I don't want to be risking anything."