Chelmsford City's two new signings - striker Stephen Morris and midfielder Keith Newby -- will make their delayed Dr Martens League Eastern Division debuts on Saturday in the home game at Billericay against Corby Town (kick-off at 3 pm).

Morris, 23, formerly at Wrexham, where he made 42 Nationwide League appearances for the Robins, goes straight into the attack alongside Ben Fuller.

Grimsby-born Newby, 20, has signed from Cambridge City and he also makes the starting line-up, taking the berth vacated by Mark Greatorex on the right side of midfield, with Ollie Berquez reverting to the other flank.

The midfield duo will be the experienced Mark Kane and Shane Bailey and it now means that both Alan Vincent and Leon Bell have been formally released from the club.

"I feel we now have the right balance, particularly in midfield, which has been a problem all season, and I am confident that can we go now go on from strength to strength and challenge at the top," City manager Gary Bellamy said this week.

"We are in a catch-up situation, being four games behind the leading pack, but I think we are now in a far stronger position to cope with it," he said. "We also have strong competition for places which is a healthy situation."

The manager has been impressed by the performance of Morris in training and he joins the club with sound recommendations from his last side, Southport, who he helped to win the FA Trophy in 1998.

"He is strong, aggressive and judging by his track record, scores goals consistently which is what we want," Bellamy added.

"He should also take some of the pressure off Tesfaye Bramble in this respect because we have come to rely upon him too much and it has shown.''

He went on: "Defensively we are strong enough and although we have an adequate stand-in goalkeeper in loanee Gavin Kelly, we are more hopeful that the experienced Paul Catley will be fit again quicker than originally thought.

"But we shall not hurry Paul back because we want to make sure he is completely fit for what will be an important second half of the season.

"Promotion remains our aim now and with no cup competitions to worry about, we can knuckle down and get on what that job," Bellamy added.

Off the field, the manager now has some much needed help with his Football in the Community scheme with the recent arrival of coach Chris Finch.

"With Chris available to help me with this scheme every week, it will enable me to develop further the other young footballers' development scheme. where we will be working closely with Nationwide League clubs in the region''.

Bellamy sees this particular development has a main source of potentially good new players in the future.

"There is a great waste of young talent when, on an average, of every 20 18-year-olds released as full-timers from top professional clubs, only two ever stay in the game.

"Under this scheme we can take them on, keep their stimulation for the game by daily coaching as well as giving them the opportunity to learn a new skill away from football, and also carry on with their education," he explained.

Ipswich Town are already linking in with the scheme.

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