The New Saints manager Scott Ruscoe believes it is vital his side kicks off the new league campaign with a win on Saturday.

After almost half a year the JD Cymru Premier returns this weekend with TNS kicking off their new league campaign with a trip to Barry Town United.

The Saints have finished their preparations for the upcoming season as they wrapped up their pre-season fixtures on Tuesday against Salford City.

Having already played and won in a competitive fixture this season in the UEFA Europa League last month, Ruscoe wants his side to carry their confidence into Saturday’s game and start their league campaign with a victory.

“It’s imperative to start the season well,” he said.

“We want a good performance and hopefully the performance takes care of the result as well.

“We’re looking to play well and dominate, certainly like we did in the European fixture last month.

“We have a lot of fixtures coming up with two weekend fixtures and two midweek games to think about.

“We have to look at who needs to play and who needs to be rested when, but we’re certainly looking forward to it, it should be a good week of football.”

TNS will look to reclaim the JD Cymru Premier title this season after it was won by Connah’s Quay Nomads last time round.

Ruscoe is convinced his side is fully prepared ahead of what will be another competitive competition.

He said: “We’re more than ready – obviously we had the result in Europe which was very good, and before that, pre-season had probably gone better than I would have imagined after the players had been off for so long.

“I feel we’re ready to go. Of course the season is starting a little later than normal, and the players can’t wait just as the staff can’t.

“We faced Barry in pre-season and they have three or four new players, so we’ve been fortunate to see them in action before the season gets underway.

“You don’t take too much from results in pre-season, but performances we do.

“They’ve had their game in Europe as we have, so I’m sure they’re going to be fit and ready and it’ll be a tough test for us.”

The Saints have enjoyed some competitive pre-season fixtures, facing teams including Liverpool under 23s, Wolverhampton Wanderers under 23s, Salford City and Hereford.

Ruscoe added: “Hereford was a good test, we had a lot of the ball without hurting their keeper too much.

“You learn more from your players and your team when you lose than you do if you win.

“We like facing tough competition in pre-season – it’s no good facing teams you can beat by four or five goals.

“They played a formation we don’t usually come up against and they had some tricky players, so it was something different for us.”

TNS kick off their season away at Barry Town United on Saturday (kick-off 2.30pm).