STRIKER Ryan Moss believes that “as a unit” the Magpies are “as good as anyone” in Blue Square Bet South.

The 23-year-old will once again lead the line this season and he is adamant that Dorchester are perfectly placed to achieve a top-half finish for the first time in five years.

He said: “There are no boundaries as to how far we can go this season. We haven’t got the biggest squad or the biggest budget but as a unit and as a set of lads, we are as good as anyone in the league.

“We’ve got a settled squad here as quite a lot of the lads have been together for a little while, and we’re in a good position.

“We haven’t got any prima-donnas, all the lads know they are at this level for a reason.

“We’ve still got the core of players we had last year, everything’s settled regarding the chairman of the club and with the likes of Sean Ferguson and Phil Simkin around we’ve got a really good set of backroom staff.

“We have won a lot of games but also lost a lot of games in recent years so we just need to go unbeaten for a while, like we did in the second half of last season.

“If we can do that then we have a chance of being right up there.”

Moss bagged 13 goals in 37 appearances last term and the former Bashley man is hopeful of building on that number.

Asked about his own personal targets for the season, Moss added: “The magic number is always 20 goals for a striker but for myself, because I do a lot more work off the ball, I just want to score as many as I can.

“Last season I had a good end to the season in terms of goals, the season before I scored quite a few early on but then came problems off the field. So this time around it would be nice to have a steady season for the whole season.”

Reflecting on the club’s pre-season preparations, Moss said: “I’m not a big fan of pre-season because it’s a long time before you play your first game and then there are a lot of them.

“Having said that, you’ve got to be fit for when the season starts so it’s kind of a double-edged sword. You want to be ready but you don’t want to blow yourself out to early.

“We’ve had it right here, we’ve had good training sessions, we’ve worked hard and we’re all fit.