The Isle of Man FA’s senior men’s team kick off a series of pre-season friendlies at the Bowl on Wednesday evening.

Paul Jones’s team begin a run of six games against a side from the Duke of Lancaster regiment tomorrow as the islanders begin their preparations for the 2018-19 season.

Vanarama National League North outfit Altrincham plus Welsh sides Bangor, Rhyl and Connah’s Quay Nomads will also visit the Bowl between now and the start of August.

The fixture against that latter this Saturday, June 30, is forming part of the Flintshire side’s Europa League qualifying prep, the Welsh facing Belarus’s Shakhtyor Soligorsk on July 12.

Jones plans to use the friendlies to shape his squad for the up-coming campaign which concludes with the Inter-Island football tournament in Anglesey next June.

The former Rushen United boss said: ’We’ve been really fortunate in some ways, but also thanks to a bit of hard work, we’ve managed to get a good number of fixtures organised over the summer against some really good opposition.

’We’ve arranged a bit of a training camp around those fixtures. We’re trying to get the players in at a minimum once a week, some weeks twice a week, so we can get to know them better and understand where their strengths lie. Ultimately at the end of our pre-season I want to select a squad to work with over the next season through to the Island Games-type tournament next summer.

’We’ve got 40-plus players coming down during the summer, including a number of people who have not been in the set-up before.

’There’s also a number of young players that have just exited the under-18s or are at that sort of age. Hopefully it’s a great opportunity for those people who thought the door might be shut to them to show what they are capable of as a player.

’It’s very much an opportunity to press the reset bottom and start again after the disappointment of last season’s Inter-League Cup defeat. I felt when I took the job I had to hit the ground running with only two weeks until the Umbro Cup.

’I didn’t really feel I made much of a change or an impact, but since the quarter-final loss in February we’ve had a chance to go away as a coaching team and reflect on how we do things. This training camp and the friendlies are the start of the process that will leave us with a squad that we want to work with.

’Our job is to make sure we’ve got some good fixtures throughout the season to keep the squad enthused and motivated and add some purpose to the training we’re going to hold.’

Talking about this week’s games, Jones added: ’They’ll [Duke of Lancaster] be a good standard. I was speaking to their manager and he has described them as a half-decent semi-pro side.

’Obviously they’ll be strong, fit lads who can play a bit - they’ll be a really good test especially for the players who aren’t used to playing outside of the Isle of Man leagues of which we’ll have a number.

’I’ve been in contact with Connah’s Quay boss Andy Morrison and I asked him "What can we do to help you prepare for your first Europa League game?" He came back saying treat it as a competitive fixture and don’t give us any niceties. They want us to be right at it to give them a proper test. It should be a good game and a really good test for us to see where we are at as a group of players.’

Isle of Man FA pre-season friendlies

Wednesday, June 27 -

Duke of Lancaster regiment 6.45pm

Friday, June 29 -

Isle of Man Schools U19s 7.15pm

Saturday, June 30 - Connah’s Quay Nomads 2pm

Saturday, July 14 - Altrincham

Saturday, July 21 - Bangor FC

Saturday, August 4 - Rhyl FC