NEWPORT County boss Terry Butcher has hailed a brilliant first week after the club returned to pre-season training, and expects to announce further signings soon.

The Exiles are back in business, training twice a day as the temperatures have soared in South Wales.

And Butcher couldn’t be happier with how his first week working with his new charges has gone, even though he admits he’s squad is far from complete.

“I am really enjoying it, the first week has gone very well so far, it’s been brilliant, the group have responded very well,” he said.

“We’ve been working players very hard and I told them on the first day, ‘this will be the worst day’ because it always is during the fitness part of pre-season.

“But even though we could’ve done with name tags on the first day in training, myself included, because everyone is getting to know each other, we feel it has been a very productive time.”

Butcher is now turning his attention to further squad strengthening, admitting some of County’s fans have already correctly earmarked what he wants to do.

“We’ve had a look on some of the fans’ forums and the supporters are talking about looking to sign central defenders, midfielder, strikers, working on the spine of the team,” he said.

“And we must have some very perceptive supporters or some future managers on there, because those are exactly the areas we are looking to improve.

“We don’t have a big budget, but there is still money to spend and we will look to spend it wisely, spreading the funds as thinly as we can.”

Butcher wouldn’t be drawn on how many players he’d ideally like to bring in over the coming weeks.

“We will have to wait and see on the numbers, but we are progressing one or two deals and hopefully will have some more news this week.”

However, Butcher is still not yet able to confirm the composition of his backroom staff.

As previously reported in Argus Sport, Butcher is expected to confirm Russell Osman and Steve Marsella as his assistant and first team coach, with both curiously shown on County’s YouTube channel in an official club video about the first day of training.

Neither man is officially a County employee yet and Butcher admits it’s a strange situation.

“There is no problem, no issue, but I can’t announce my backroom staff yet, not everything is finalised,” he said.

“I’m sure when it is announced; it will be seen as one of the worst kept secrets ever!”

Butcher is also expecting to announce a new head physio to replace Adam Roche, admitting it will be another key appointment.

“The physio will be working closely with Andrew Hughes, who is stepping up his rehabilitation, and that’s another appointment we expect to announce shortly,” he said.

“We also have Jason Turner (new general manager) starting next week and that should be helpful as well.

“The club had a great infrastructure in place before we arrived, and we are getting back to that with a new team in place.”