The New Saints boss Scott Ruscoe has praised the club’s new players who have already started to show their worth in training sessions.

The Saints returned to training three weeks ago with two new faces joining the first team squad after Leo Smith and Louis Robles had both signed last month.

And after being back on the pitch, the duo have wasted no time in showing their talent in front of Ruscoe and the coaching staff, as the team prepares for the upcoming European campaign.

Ruscoe is looking forward to seeing the new additions in action in some friendly fixtures before competitive fixtures resume.

He said: “I think they’ve fitted in well and everyone’s welcomed them into the group.

“We’ve got a good bunch of players who are very welcoming anyway – something we pride ourselves on is getting the right players into the dressing room.

“Louis and Leo have both come in and have been doing really well. They look sharp and fit and ready to start playing some friendlies.

“That will be a good opportunity to show them in a game situation how we want to play.”

The Saints are yet to arrange any friendlies, and Ruscoe admits it will be a different type of pre-season in comparison to recent years.

He explained: “We’re trying to get some friendlies, because it’s very important to get the right level of opposition in preparation for Europe.

“It will be strange this year – over the last two or three seasons, we’ve played Rangers and it has been a very good friendly each time, but they start their league campaign in August so we’ll have to find different teams to play.

“I have spoken to a couple of League One managers but they’re not back in training yet, so it’s all a bit new to us under the current circumstances.

“It might be that we have to play against some sides we haven’t played against before.

“We’ll probably have to play sides more local to us, and we’ll have to face some stronger opposition as a test to replicate what we could be coming up against in Europe.”

With Ruscoe’s men usually playing throughout the year with a short break in the summer, the past three months without a game has meant a longer lay-off than usual.

However, the Saints boss believes it has done his players good.

He said: “We’ve had a long time off now and haven’t had a game since early March.

“We tend to usually play for 10 or 11 months of the year, so you can tell a bit of a difference after a few months off.

“But I think it’s possibly worked in our favour a bit because the players have missed football so much, so there is a real hunger and desire to get back playing.

“We’ll be ready to go whenever we need to – obviously with Europe, we will be in a strong condition before the season gets underway, same with the other sides in Europe.”