RYAN Beck has predicted his New Milton side will face a huge challenge in the ‘most competitive’ division in the Southern League.

The Fernhill outfit are set to begin their Division One campaign at Hook & Newnham Basics tomorrow (1pm) and captain Beck believes the fixture will be the first of many difficult encounters in 2014.

He told the Daily Echo: “It’s going to be a tough old league looking at the teams coming down and up. I think it will be the best league out of the four in terms of competitiveness. Anyone can go up and anyone can go down because there are a lot of very even teams.

“Bournemouth have come down so they are probably one of the favourites to go up having brought players in left, right and centre.

“We haven’t brought many in at all. Ben Lawes probably won’t be with us until June and we got Ashley Collison from Wimborne, but that’s about it.

“We have just looked at what we’ve got and we think we have the personnel to do what we want to do.”

Beck has no expectations for tomorrow’s fixture given that New Milton’s training time has been limited.

He added: “Because we’ve had such bad weather, we haven’t had many chances to blow the cobwebs out. You have got to just go out and enjoy a day with your mates.”

New Milton: (from) R Beck, L Beck, J Park, N Park, Elliott, House, Loader, Edwards, G Watts, Staniford, Gargaro.