ANY concerns about the rate at which players were departing Buckland Athletic will have been alleviated by the eight, yes eight, new faces that the club introduced yesterday.

Midfield duo Ben Fowles and Teigan Rosenquest were the latest individuals to move away from Homers Heath with Bucks 1st XI manager Matt Cusack wanting to “Wish them well on their quests and thank them for their contributions.”

Speaking to the Mid-Devon Advertiser, he continued, they “Both live in Tavistock so they decided to move a bit closer to home and obviously it’s an opportunity to test themselves at a higher level as well”, with the pair of them returning to Southern League side Tavistock AFC.

Cusack previously stressed that there were “Some ready-made replacements incoming very shortly who we’re really excited to get into the club” and he certainly wasn’t wrong given the calibre of this new octet.

Goalkeeper Jordan Duffey, defenders Jake Lane and Scott Pocock plus attacking midfielder Sean Thomson are all arriving at the VX3 Stadium from Devon rivals Ivybridge Town.

The Greens are also undergoing wholesale change with former Dobwalls AFC managers Ben Washam and Brad Gargett (click here for our first chat with them) taking charge at Erme Valley.

Sammy Stayt meanwhile makes a return to Buckland having previously made over 100 appearances for the club. The other three signings are Harry Bell, who used to don the green of Mousehole AFC, Phil Mendonca from Wellington AFC and Cameron Sangster, who has been out of the game for a while.

Cusack described the feeling as one of “absolute delight” to get “each and every one of them over the line.”

He added, “They will all offer something different and real competition for places. They’ve all got something in common and that’s that they’re all hungry. I think that’s going to bode well, we’ve already had a welcome meeting to mix them in with the lads from the existing squad and we’ll be getting on the training ground next Tuesday so we’re excited for that.”

Losing Adam-Seedhouse Evans, Sam Morcom and Adam Hill left Buckland with a big whole in both their defence and their leadership team. Duffey has a “huge reputation in between the sticks” though and is “really excited about the project and to get going.”

Also entering the defensive third are the following. “Left-back Jake Lane, I’ve been a big admirer of his for a while now, I was actually tracking him during my post at Helston so I’m delighted to be working with him.

“Alongside him, Scott Pocock and Harry Bell, both central defenders who are keen to prove themselves. Both with excellent pedigree, obviously Scott is an outstanding leader and Harry has got that great pedigree, having played at Marjon and whatnot, so I can’t wait to work with those two boys.”

Pocock was an Ivybridge player for a decade and served as captain there for a long period of time too so that seems like a really astute piece of business.

At the other end of the field, Sean Thomson boasted “brilliant statistics last year” under Wayne Gamble, “13 goals and 18 assists or something like that” and “If he can deliver those numbers for us, that would be fantastic.” Only Ryan Bush and Jared Lewington scored more goals than that from a Buckland point of view.

As previously mentioned, Stayt is returning which Cusack labelled as “a real coup” plus Sangster “wants to get his love for the game back again and I’ve managed to convince him that this is the project for him [to do that].”

Lastly, Mendonca was a delight to watch from a neutral’s perspective at Homers Heath last season. Buckland may have won that clash 4-0 but the “exciting, young winger” was the clear standout for the visitors and is “the type who will get people out of their seats.”