HOT-shot Martin Paul is hoping for a feast of goals this season after returning to action with a double strike for the Bluebirds at the weekend.

The 28-year-old former Bristol Rovers striker played for Doncaster, Bath City and Newport County before joining Chippenham. He was the Dr Martens Premier Division top scorer in 1998/99 and was Chippenham's top marksmen with 19 goals last season.

He missed the Bluebirds' early pre-season games because of a holiday and did not get a chance to catch up in training last week because he was working out of the area.

But he made an instant impact scoring twice at Elmore on Saturday and is now looking to raise his fitness before the start of the new season.

"I missed quite a bit of time at the start of pre-season but the Elmore game was fun," Paul said. "It was a good workout for the lads and there were a couple of new players involved and a couple coming back from injury."

Despite looking sharp when he put away two one-on-one chances, Paul admitted he was huffing and puffing by the time he was replaced by Charlie Griffin.

"It was just important to get back into the swing of things and, although it was good to get back on the score-sheet, I'm not too worried whether I score or not at this stage of the season," he added.

"I really felt it by half time and was shattered when I came off. Hopefully if I can get a couple of training sessions under my belt I will be able to last an extra five minutes in the next game!"

Looking ahead to the new season Paul said he expects a tough time emulating the club's high-flying campaign last season.

He added: "It's going to be very difficult. I think the fans only realised what a hard league it is when we had a dodgy spell in the last month of last season.

"Now we are less of an unknown quantity teams will come here to defend and we will really have to scrap to turn draws into wins and losses into draws."

He added that he would not be setting himself any goal scoring targets.

"I got 19 last season which was fine but I'm not saying I want 20 this time because you never know if you might get 20 games or not," the striker said.

"Generally forwards like to get one goal every two games and if I manage that I will be very happy."

Paul is now looking forward to the new season with Chippenham and said he did not contemplate a summer move anywhere else.

"I've got a year to go on my contract and I don't think anyone spoke to Tommy about me," he said.

"I just finished the final game of last season and said 'see you in August.'"