JOINT manager Ian Concannon has not ruled out the possibility of prolific striker John Mills staying at Didcot Town this season.

Mills, who scored an incredible 57 goals for the Railwaymen last year, featured as a surprise second-half substitute in Saturday’s 5-0 pre-season friendly defeat against Oxford United.

He has attracted interest from higher-ranked clubs, but has yet to secure a deal.

After playing for 28 minutes at the weekend, Concannon says the door is open for Mills to stay at the south Oxfordshire club.

He added: “John Mills’s situation is extremely simple – he wants to get a deal at a higher club, which is absolutely fine.

“He’s going to try and get a deal elsewhere, but in the meantime while he’s not training there he will come and train with us.

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“If he does that he will be involved in pre-season games as well and we will see what happens.

“The longer it goes on and he doesn’t get a deal that might favour us a bit more.”

Concannon continued: “It’s not dead in the water.

“I would never turn around and say ‘Millsy’s not going to sign here’ because in two weeks he could do that.

“It’s very open and honest.”

Mills’s future could well be decided over the next few weeks with Concannon revealing there is interest from higher level non-league clubs.

Concannon added: “He’s been training at a certain club in the last week or so.

“I’m not going to name them, but he’s got a couple of trials coming up at non-league clubs of a good level, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

The fixtures for the 2015-16 Evo-Stik Southern League Division 1 South & West season will be announced on Thursday.

And despite the result on Saturday, Concannon was pleased with how his side has started their pre-season preparations.

He added: “The scoreline is irrelevant for us.

“This is our first game and we’ve had six training sessions, so we’re generally quite pleased with our overall play.

“We know there’s stuff to work on, but there’s a lot of positives which came out of that as well.”

Didcot make the short trip to Milton United tonight (7.45), while Division 1 South & West rivals Wantage Town welcome Hungerford Town to Alfredian Park (7.45).

NATIONAL League South outfit Oxford City travel to Marlow this evening (7.45).

Justin Merritt’s side began pre-season with a 4-1 win at Hungerford on Saturday.