Austin adopting careful approach as he looks to strengthen Cobblers squad

And the Town boss admits one or two of his current group could exit as they look to get more game time elsewhere.

Cobblers are preparing for the return to Sky Bet League Two following last season's relegation.

And when asked how many more players he would like to add to his squad, Austin said: "It's a strategic few, I've always said that.

"I think there may be one or two of ours, who haven't had as much game time as they would have wanted at the end of last season, that might go, so we'll look at that.

"We will carefully look to place players in positions where we need to strengthen."

Austin's first signing as Cobblers manager was striker Andy Williams, who has joined on a two-year deal following his release from Doncaster Rovers.

The 31-year-old scored 29 goals in 106 appearances during three years at Rovers.

And Austin believes he is exactly the type of character Cobblers need as they look to mount a promotion challenge this season.

"We've looked at a couple of areas where we need to get better," Austin said.

"We conceded far too many goals last season and we scored nowhere near enough.

"We didn't concede loads of goals because our defence wasn't good enough - it's a team thing, and defending starts from the front.

"We've looked at the areas where we've conceded the goals and that's something we need to rectify.

"But we do need to score more goals and we had a list - we still do - of strikers we felt were attractive to us and we wanted to go and make a bit of a statement by going to the top of our list and getting as good as we could.

"Andy is a very good player who is proven at this level and the level above, and on top of that, he's a fantastic person.

"He's the kind of character I wanted to bring to this great football club.

"He's got a big part to play.

"I had a whole presentation for him when he came in to see me and he gave me great encouragement when he came in and sat down.

"He saw our squad on the board and I'm not going to tell you what he said, but it was very encouraging, what he said about our squad."