Current players are the priority - Town boss Neil Woods

NEIL Woods has emphasised that he is still keen to look at new players – but not at the expense of his existing squad.

The Mariners' boss has taken the opportunity to look at a raft of trialists during Town's pre-season friendlies as he aims to add more strength in depth to his squad before the season kicks-off on August 14.

IMPRESSING: Steven Watt in action in the pre-season friendly against Sheffield Wednesday at Blundell Park.

After an impressive display at the heart of the defence against Sheffield Wednesday, former Chelsea and Ross County defender Steven Watt had another chance to impress at Gainsborough Trinity on Tuesday night.

Another solid performance alongside Darran Kempson in the scoreless draw will have done the 25-year-old's chances of prolonging his stay at Blundell Park no harm.

However, the two other trialists that travelled with the team to Trinity – former Northampton Town central midfielder Alex Dyer and ex-West Brom defender Dwayne Samuels – both spent the evening on the bench.

Explaining his decision not to take a closer look at the pair, Woods said: "I wanted the existing lads to play 90 minutes, as much as they can. I explained to the two lads before we went that I'm happy to look at some trialists but not at the expense of our lads.

"Our players' preparation for Crawley and for the league starting is the main thing.

"I said depending on how the game goes would decide whether I got them on.

"As the game went on I wanted to keep certain people who haven't played 90 minutes on and get that out of them – I think you could see in the last 10-15 minutes that they hadn't played 90 minutes.

"It's no disrespect to them, it's just looking after our priorities, which is our players.

"Alex and Dwayne are still training. We expect to make a decision on them in the next day or two."

Other recent trialists for the Mariners have included winger David Hutton and former Brisol City midfielder Scott Brown.

Woods confirmed that neither player would be part of his plans this season: "David is now at Carlisle and we won't be taking further interest in him.

"Scott is too far away in terms of fitness. For me he is still four or five weeks away from anything close to what I would deem match fit, and in our situation that is too long."