The Mitres travel to Bridgwater Town tomorrow for their opening match, with the burly figure of Denton poised to lead the line in the absence of Jake Lee, who has a broken toe.

Denton, a Hartpury College student who was at Didcot Town last season, featured in last Monday's 1-1 friendly draw against Gloucester City and Brough was confident of signing him in time to start the new league campaign.

Brough has brought in winger Jacob Morgan, adding to his collection of former Cheltenham Town scholars from his time in charge of the club's youth set-up.

Goalkeeper Louie Barnfather, defender Matt Williams and midfielder Joe Turley all played in the same Robins Under-18s team as Morgan.

Brough is hoping to give current Cheltenham prospects a chance for senior experience this term and he has already recruited Bobbie Dale, who turned out for Cleeve on work experience last season.

Dale will not be in the squad tomorrow as he is playing for Cheltenham's youth team against Newport County.

Cleeve's pre-season schedule saw them win two, draw two and lose two and Brough said that although they are out of depth in terms of budget and fan base, he believes he has assembled a competitive squad who can improve on last season's bottom-but-one finish.

"The players have worked hard, listened to advice and friendly performances have been good," Brough said.

"We have played at a good tempo, produced some nice football and kept clean sheets and also scored goals. We need to make sure we are ready to put it all into practice now."

Brough believes it is good that Cleeve have experienced a range of results in their build-up to the new campaign.

"I am pleased we've had a mixed bag of results because it's shown me we can react well to going behind or losing and that's important," Brough said. "The players have responded well to what I've asked of them and we played very well against Gloucester and it's worked out well with that game falling just a few days before our first league game.

"I think my recruitment in terms of permanent signings is done and I have a nice little squad of 13 or 14 together now.

"But I will be looking to clubs like Cheltenham, Hereford United and Swindon Town to get players in on work experience like we have with Bobbie.

"I'll be speaking to (Robins boss) Mark Yates, (assistant) Neil Howarth and (head of youth) Russell Milton to see if I can bring some more in from Cheltenham because it's beneficial for both parties."