start the new football season as hot promotion favourites.

Rangers are expected to be a serious promotion contender, mainly because of their vast First Division experience and the fact that they have been able to keep the bulk of their squad together. Meanwhile Vasco boosted their squad considerably with a number of signings during the summer, including several players of First Division status.

Moving to Vasco are Ricky Mallory, Earl Richardson and Larance Durham from Dandy Town; Anthony Bailey from North Village; Paul Towlson and Scott Morton from Hotels; Karl Roberts from Somerset; Gerald Sims, Anthony Lima, Danny Faria and Paul Franco from BAA; Joe Cunha from Port Royal; and Carl Ainscough and Colin Lloyd from Forties.

Add to that the likes of Edgar Smith, Donovan Livingston, Sergio Griffith, Derek Thomas and Tony Cabral who are already at the club and there is no reason why Vasco shouldn't be the team to beat and possibly put fear into a few First Division teams come FA Cup time.

Prospect look like being another team pushing for one of the two promotion spots, having also made some important signings. Tracey Adams has joined them from Devonshire Colts, Neil Topping from Hotels, Robert Goodchild from Somerset, Gary Holberry from BAA Wanderers and Stevie Lightbourne from Warwick.

Port Royal, who finished third last season after leading the division at one stage, have lost the likes of Sandy Boyles back to Boulevard, Ricardo Correia to BAA Wanderers, Cunha to Vasco, Mark Woods to Forties and Colin Zuill to BAA.

With Leroy (Curly Joe) Wilson moving from Dandy Town to take over as their coach, Port Royal have also managed to attract some new players in Ervin Bean and Shane Grant from Devonshire Colts; Jermaine Smith, Giovanni Wilson, Kenneth Furbert and Raymond Butterfield from Dandy Town; Clinarke Dill and Kent Todd from Southampton Rangers and the experienced Mario Smith from Social Club.

Social Club could be a darkhorse for promotion. They have kept much the same squad from last season when they finished in mid-table and they have boosted their number by signing five players from North Village.

It will be interesting to see how BAA can recover from losing 16 players, including the likes of Kent Martin, Robert Lopes, Paul Scope, Michael Richardson, Gerald Sims, Anthony Lima, Danny Faria, Jeffrey Amaral and Paul Franco.

In return they've gotten Duncan Ashworth and Philip Bolton from the Wanderers, Shawn Dill and Melvin Williams from Hotels, Leo Simmons and Chris Maiato from Vasco and Richard Bradbury from Forties.

BAA's ground will likely remain closed until the end of the year because of resurfacing of the field and in the meantime will use Southampton Oval for home matches.

Relegated Devonshire Cougars don't appear to be strong enough to mount a serious challenge, having lost 24 players, including first teamers Philip Clarke, Paul Simmons, Wali Salaam, Shawn Smith, Leon Place, Shivaughn Smith, Stevie Wade, Clark Riley, Richard Todd, Maxwell Dill and Dion Wainwright.

ADDED INGREDIENTS -- Ricky Mallory (left) and Paul Towlson (right) will boost Vasco this season.