Lowestoft Town must be realistic in their expectations this season manager Ady Gallagher has warned on the eve of the start of their Bostik League Premier Division campaign.

The Blues travel to Leatherhead this afternoon (kick-off 3pm) in their opening game after a summer in which the changes have been well and truly rung at Crown Meadow, now named the Amber Dew Events Stadium.

Big players like Chris Henderson, Fraser Blake-Tracy and Ryan Jarvis have left the club but several new faces have been brought in to freshen up the squad.

Lowestoft are of course a seasoned side at step three of the non league pyramid – last season's 11th-placed finish was the first time they hadn't made the play-offs at this level in five attempts.

Fans will be hopeful of a tilt at the top five but Gallagher admits that could be a very tough task given the amount of change that has taken place on the east coast this summer.

'The ambition and the drive must be to win every game – it's going to be incredibly difficult to do something like that (make the play-offs),' said Gallagher, who starts his third season in sole charge of the Trawlerboys.

'Last season we finished 11th and given everything that happened that was a great achievement.

'We've got even less money this season but we want to do better. But we do need to have realistic expectations – we need to get behind the boys and we will be looking to do the absolute best we can.

'I don't think we need to be putting ourselves under any more pressure than we have to.'

Leatherhead have made a few changes themselves over the close season with Jimmy Bullard leaving the Tanners to be replaced by Sammy Moore.

'They've got a new manager and obviously new ideas,' added Gallagher.

'I'm sure they will be looking to impress the new manager and they are one of the fancied sides this season. We're expecting a tough test.'

Gallagher has a full squad to choose from despite carrying a few knocks from the physical encounter against King's Lynn last weekend although Rory McAuley is out through suspension.