GOALKEEPER Matt Gould is determined to keep improving his game while helping the Glassboys to another promotion push this season.

Stourbridge's last line of defence thinks the club is capable of challenging at the top of the Northern Premier League once again after a host of fresh faces arrived at Amblecote.

Jordan Murphy, Ryan Rowe, Connor Gater, Aaron Forde, Aris Christophorou, Danny O'Callaghan, Bobby Moseley and Paul McCone have all come in to replace the departing Luke Benbow, Matt Dodd, Chris Lait and Tom Tonks during a busy summer.

Gould impressed last term as Stour made it to the third round of the FA Cup but went on to suffer play-off final heartache.

They will begin the new campaign against Matlock Town at the War Memorial Ground this Sunday (3pm kick-off) and Gould is raring to go.

He said: "I've really enjoyed pre-season and I think the team that Gary (Hackett) has brought in looks exciting and hopefully we can go on again from what we achieved last year.

"The FA Cup run will be hard to replicate but in the league we can go and challenge to win it.

"We lost a lot of players through injury at the end of last season. Big Jack Duggan was a massive miss but he's back and looking sharp. Then we have the new lads and ex-pros like McCone and Rowe who have already been here. They know what Stourbridge is all about and even Jordan Murphy was brought up at Stourbridge.

"It looks a good team and hopefully we can show that on Sunday.

"We are expected to do well but we do have a new team. There is a chance it may take time to settle but hopefully we can start with a bang.

"Over the last two years I don't think have started particularly well. Last year we should have started much better and if we'd have done that we may have given Blyth a better run for their money, so it's important we start well and gain momentum quickly this time.

"Anyone can win this league but Sunday is the most important game before anything else."

On a personal level, Gould is determined to earn himself another crack as a professional when the time is right.

He added: "I've got a long-term plan to be a professional footballer but I think being a pro in the past meant I had to come back down to this level to learn, which I'm still doing.

"From where I started at Stourbridge to the progression I've made now is massive. If I can carry on the progress I made last season then I'll eventually get a big move.

"I love it at Stourbridge and I love every minute of playing here. It's important that if I was to move on it would have to be at a place I was playing every week, unless it was a ridiculous offer at League One or the Championship like Dan Scarr.

"I've just got to carry on where I left off last season and hopefully get better and better."