Fakenham Town boss Wayne Anderson says he fears none of his rivals next season – and is aiming for a top-three finish in the Thurlow Nunn First Division.

Anderson's Ghosts had their first workout of the summer at the weekend when they lost 2-1 at home to King's Lynn Town, and Anderson has purposely chosen a tough schedule to prepare for the new campaign.

The First Division will welcome the reserve teams of Dereham Town, AFC Sudbury and Needham Market next season, but Anderson believes his Ghosts side can make an impact.

'To be fair I don't fear anyone now, I seriously don't,' he said. 'I thought we gave a good account of ourselves against Lynn. Yes, Lynn had a lot of possession of the ball and they have some quality players and will always have a lot of possession, but when you work hard off the ball it is difficult to break people down.

'That is what I have been working on. We have good shape and a strong back four and if I do need to bring five in midfield I will do that. The longer the game goes on other teams get frustrated – you can go and nick a goal and that is what happened with us last season. We had good shape, we didn't concede a lot of goals last season, but we nicked the odd one or two.

'Now we have Robbie Harris in as well there is a great chance for us to go and finish in the top three.'

Ex-Wisbech and Lynn striker Harris is an experienced campaigner at this level and paired up well with Kyle Plumb against the Linnets. Anderson is hoping their partnership pays off, but won't be afraid to see his team flex their muscles over the coming months.

'Maybe we do lack a bit of flair in the side, but sometimes you can win games of football by bullying teams and obviously in our league there are teams, like Dereham reserves, who will be academy boys, youngsters – are they going to be physically strong enough to go and play against people likes Plumb and (Stephen) Harvey and (Lee) Day and myself? That wins you games of football sometimes. If we get our fitness right this season – and a lot of the boys have been working hard, I think we will be there or thereabouts.'

Anderson, like his Lynn counterpart Gary Setchell, wasn't reading a lot into the friendly result.

'The result wasn't what I was worried about,' he said.

'It was the fitness of the boys and working hard against a good side.

'Obviously Setch has been working on people for a long while and has got some good players in at the moment. And for my boys it is an honour to go and play against people like that who have obviously played a bit higher.

'The result is not a matter for me – pushing on and working on is. We had some good chances in the first half – we had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper which could have turned the game the other way around and made it 2-2.'

In other news, Fakenham host a Norwich City XI on Saturday in a friendly to commemorative two loyal supporters of both clubs.

The pre-season clash at Clipbush Park will be held in memory of Geoffrey Riches and Ted Edge.

Riches was a loyal City fan for more than 60 years and had a keep interest in all local sport. He died, aged 86, in March this year the day after collapsing on his way out of Carrow Road following Norwich's 0-0 draw with Southampton.

Edge, who died aged 80 in February, has followed the Canaries for more than 65 years – 45 of which were as a season-ticket holder. He watched all of the games during City's memorable FA Cup run of 1959.

A raffle will be held at the match, which kicks-off at 3pm, with the winning prize being a new Norwich shirt. All funds from it will be split between the two families to go to respective charities of their choice. Admission: adults £5, under-16s and concessions £3.