PICKERING Town will be relying on team spirit rather than big money during their first season of Evo-Stik League football.

Experienced manager Paul Marshall believes that the Pikes will be operating with the smallest budget in the Northern Premier League division one east but does not regard that as a barrier to the club’s efforts to consolidate themselves and prosper in the higher echelon of the English game.

Marshall, who guided the Pikes to promotion last term after finishing second in the Northern Counties East League premier division table, reckons there are a host of clubs with resources way in excess of those available at Mill Lane, including his former team and A64 rivals Tadcaster Albion.

South Yorkshire outfit Frickley Athletic, meanwhile, have snapped up released York City trio Connor Smith, James Gray and Daniel Rowe, who were all full-time professionals in National League North last season.

On the challenge of minimising the Pikes’ off-pitch disadvantage, though, Marshall reasoned: “The amount of money we have to pay people makes it difficult to get players in and we’re mainly reliant on Scarborough and York lads.

“Frickley, Ossett United, Taddy, Cleethorpes, Marske and Morpeth are all paying big, big money and that’s just six that I know of. Our budget will be slightly bigger than last season but only by £150 to £200 a week, which works out at about an extra tenner for each player.

“It will be the smallest budget in the league, so it will be a tough season, but we’ve got good character and a great team spirit and it’s not all about money.”

Crossing swords with old employers Tadcaster is also a challenge Marshall will relish, adding: “It will be the first time Pickering have played at this level. Taddy achieved it two years ago, so they’re a little ahead of us in terms of Evo-Stik League experience, but it will be great to play them again.

“Mikey (Morton) and Si (Collins) came into the club as my coaches at Taddy and they’re a bit older and wiser and have stepped up to first-team management now. They know what I do and I know what they do and I’m good friends with everybody at Taddy but, when you’re the manager of a different club, you go out to do the best for them.”

Marshall, 55, was recently the subject of an online story that suggested he would rack up his 900th game as a manager next season, stating that his current tally was 885.

But the former Harrogate Town, Bridlington, Goole, Harrogate Railway and Tadcaster boss insists he is already part of the elite club that have reached four figures, if his time with Harrogate Catholic Club, where he cut his teeth in Sunday morning football, as well as his stint as Harrogate Town reserves’ chief, are taken into account.

“I believe I’ve done more than a thousand since starting out in the Harrogate Sunday Morning League in 1994,” Marshall declared.