The 6ft 2ins former Lincoln City target man, who joined Town from Worksop Town in September 2005, still managed to score seven times last term despite his knee injury problems, and Gladiators joint-manager Phil Brown has confirmed that Cropper will be training with the rest of his colleagues on Saturday.

“We know what he's capable of and we've spoken to him explaining what we expect from him,” said Brown.

“Dene's hungry and wants to play for Matlock Town and prove to the fans that he's got over his injuries. If he can do that and stay clear of injury, it'll be like having a new player.”

With Cropper joining new signing Ross Hannah and last season's leading marksman Simon Barraclough as attacking options, with the possibility of another forward training with them, Brown reckons that Matlock could have plenty of choices at the cutting edge of their play in the upcoming season.

“We're looking for competition with nobody's place guaranteed, and the busy pre season fixture list will enable us to look at a lot of things,” said Brown.

However, the lack of a guarantee of first team football has prompted another striker, Ben Kistell, to seek pastures new.

The 25-year-old, who scored four times in 13 appearances after signing from Hucknall Town in January, left by mutual consent last week.

“Ben had good technique, but we weren't quite sure whether he was an ‘in behind’ player or a target man on his own,” said Brown.

“In the end we felt it was better for him to be playing somewhere and getting better rather than being frustrated on the bench and he goes with our best wishes.”

“We're looking to add at least two more players to what we’ve got, and hopefully three,” Brown also revealed.

“And we want to get the lads in as quickly as we possibly can and into the swing of things, and integrated with the rest of the squad in the training sessions and friendlies so we can hit the season running.