Right...

The Dust has settled...yes im still on Cloud 9 and loving life but there is an important event on the Horizon. Also we are 6 weeks behind the other teams in terms of recruitment and retained players.

The Retained list - What we saying ? who are we keeping and who are we looking at bringing in (any rumours). Also seems Davey C mentioned he wants to keep this squad together. For me we need to secure a real contract for Sterry, Loan Cass again for another Season and somehow buy Armstrong from Salford.

Areas in which id hope we Strengthen.

GK - Kilip isnt League 2 pedigree im afraid although id have him on the bench and for Cup games.

LB - Ferguson .. will be interesting to see if he can make the grade at this level. Think Francis was only short term deal too cant see him being offered a new deal.

CB - Can Liddle still do it at 35 in L2 ? Odusina i think is contracted ?

CB - Johnson id give him a shot at it, tidy enough but will be good to see if he can adapt to this level. Still we need a good League experienced defender (but someone sub 30 still with pace)

RB - Sterry say no more, absolutely class and will be fantastic at this level.

MF - Can Feaths still dominate like he did last season in L2 (worth a shot id say) but id still like cover with a more box to box CM who provides more goals

MF - Shelton i think will only get better and is good enough for this level - again wouldnt mind a game changing MF from the bench to replace him (atm we have nothing)

MF - irish Midfielder he stays

Wingers - need more attack minded direct players for this level

CF - keep Armstrong - Oates is a god and will only get better but an impact striker is needed to come off the bench, suitably someone with some height. I wouldnt be disappointed if we got Bennett, in our team i honestly think he would do a job.

Luke Williams - only wish this kid could be 100%, unfortunately for us i cant see him being our maestro in MF nxt season. Released ?
Donaldson ? surely his time is up
Crawford and Macdonald are still contracted im led to believe (both not good enough for L2)
Ofosu and Bloomfield (exit left please)
Mols ? not too sure on him - wouldnt be too bothered if he got released
Youth Players N/A
Elliot - think hes back off to Chester.
Other Loan players N/A

problem that challinor has is the length of time he has now got to recruit new players. might see him starting with basically the same team that were promoted with a couple of new lads. can see the loan market getting a bashing and a lot of comings and goings in january. if we could finish where harrogate did last season i,d be over the moon. would take barrows final league position now.

The players still contracted are Brad Young, Joe Grey, David Ferguson, Gavan Holohan and Josh MacDonald (* and Tom Crawford, according to today's Northern Echo). That's not enough for the basis of a competitive NL squad, let alone League Two. Hopefully there are a few players with options on a second year that can be exercised.

Dave Challinor has a mammoth task task ahead of him, but if anyone is well suited to making the best of it, it's him. Unquestionably he'll lose a few that he'd like to keep. Otherwise I agree with Mr Accy - he has a lot of faith in the current group of lads, who know what's expected of them and will run through walls for this gaffer. Momentum counts for a hell of a lot, as a number of recently promoted sides from the NL have shown - but not Barrow or Harrogate, who can both count themselves lucky to have gone up last season.

No doubt Challinor will give contracts to some current players that not all fans will agree with - tough titty.

Challinor has confirmed Young is off to Leicester and that extensions have been triggered for Timi and Shelton.