Phil Parkinson has warned his Altrincham players they will have “big targets on their backs” as they prepare to launch another National League campaign against Woking at The J.Davidson Stadium on Saturday afternoon (3pm).

Alty slipped under the radar last season and surprised everyone by finishing fourth and only going out of the play-offs to eventual winners Bromley in a tightly-contested semi-final in south-east London.

But their stunning exploits in going so close to promotion to the Football League will make them marked men this time round, according to Alty boss Parkinson, who has added winger Kahrel Reddin to his squad after the former Aston Villa and Stoke City youngster impressed in pre-season.

“When we have faced Woking previously, we have seen them as a big scalp to aim for, because of their league position, but that will be us this time,” he said after last Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Bradford City. “We will be the ones with big targets on our backs, which means we are going to have to be that much more robust and better at everything we do, because we will be the team everyone wants to beat.

“It’s only our third year of being full-time and we’ve just lost one of the best players the National League has ever seen, in Chris Conn-Clarke, but this is how it’s going to be for us after what we did last season, and we have to be ready for it.

“We will be, because we want that challenge, that level of expectation, and we have players who are hungry and at an age where they can kick on.”

Parkinson picked out one-time Manchester United youngster Max Haygarth as one to watch in an attacking midfield role.

“We’ve had an idea for a while now of our starting line-up, but it has changed marginally with some of the performances we’ve seen,” he said.

“Max wasn’t necessarily in our minds as a starter straightaway, but has been looking stronger and better with every pre-season game.”