Around 160 trialists have tried their luck with Romford so far

Romford boss Paul Martin admits he feels like former X Factor judge Simon Cowell after running the rule over a huge number of hopefuls this summer.

Martin has revealed that around 160 trialists have tried to win his favour ahead of the new Ryman Division One North campaign.

And he has reduced that number down to the final 25 who will be assessed during the club’s opening pre-season friendlies against Barking and Thurrock over the coming week.

Martin said: “It’s been hard work looking at so many players – we’ve had around 160 trialists come in this year.

“We’ve still got 25 we’re looking at and we’ll possibly sign four or five of them.

“We’ve done nine sessions of fitness work so far, but we need to see what these people are capable of in a match situation.

“After a couple of games we should be able to tell if they’re capable of performing at this level and we’ll have made our final decisions by the end of the month.”

Martin has been overwhelmed by the amount of talent expressing an interest in playing for the club this season.

He said: “The quality – and quantity – has been phenomenal this year.

“We’ve had players coming in from all over the place – many from south London and some from even as far as Chatham.

“The fact that we’ve been able to attract so many good players shows you that we are building a bigger and better club.

“It proves we are doing something right.”