Fleet’s new midfield general Alex Lawless cited Garry Hill’s influence as being of particular motivation for his signing for the club.
The Leyton Orient title winner, who has also won the league with Luton Town, credited the Fleet boss in conversation with BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster before last night’s friendly.
“The manager was a big part of that,” Lawless said. “He’s tried to sign me in the past, he’s told me his plans for me and for the team and it really appealed to me. So I’m here to help the team and enjoy myself.”
With two National League medals to his name, Lawless knows what it takes to be effective at this level and the former Welsh youth international hopes to bring that on to the pitch at the Kuflink Stadium.
“Fortunately I’ve won [the league] a few times and both teams have been different so I’ll take everything I can from those experiences to help the boys here out,” he said. “The biggest thing in both of those [titles], we were good teams. As far as I’m concerned as an experienced player, it’s for me to make sure that we’re a strong team and that’s something I’ll be definitely pumping into the lads. That’s an important characteristic and it’s started well, so fingers crossed.”
With Fleet’s squad continuing to evolve as the manager adds new faces through July, Lawless is prepared for a period of adjustment as his colleagues gel but he thinks that process is well under way already.
“I would imagine it normally does [take time],” he said, “but then sometimes it can click quicker than we expect as well. We’ve seen snippets of that in the games we’ve played. Hopefully we’ll see a bit more of that, especially when other players come in. There’s quite a few experienced players here as well so that can help the ‘clicking’ happen quicker. We’ve got a good pre-season schedule to work it all out.
“It’s difficult at the minute [to tell], we have got a small squad at the current moment. But the players that are in the current squad are more than capable of producing good performances and winning a lot of games. I’m optimistic at this point.”
