Midfielder De St Croix will stay at Nyewood Lane to give boss Robbie Blake another boost as he sets about shaping his squad for the new Isthmian premier division campaign.

Blake has already recruited striker Dan Smith from Dulwich Hamlet, forward Jasper Mather from Met Police, keeper Ryan Hall from Aldershot Town, attacker Lucas Pattenden from Littlehampton Town, midfielder Ben Anderson from Horndean and defender Kieran Douglas from Dorchester Town.

Now he can count on De St Croix to bolster his options after it seemed that he may move to Hungerford Town. And the schemer, signed from Met Police last summer, says committing his future to Bognor was a “no brainer”.

He said: “It had to be done. There is so much to like about being at Bognor and it was a no brainer to be honest. I felt I developed as a player last season, especially in the second half of the season under Robbie Blake. It’s a lovely club to be at and the fans are different class, both home and away and they really make you feel part of something, which as a player is important.

“You can see by our signings that we have plenty of intent going in to the new season and I want to be part of that. We showed in the Sussex Senior Cup final penalties loss against Worthing at the end of last season just how well we can play and I think we deserved to win that game.

“We need more consistency and then we can set about finding some momentum and hopefully getting in and around the play-offs. There is definitely a sense of unfinished business and I am really happy to stay and fight for the cause.”

Blake says he still has his eyes on at least a couple of new faces coming in to the Nye Camp but is happy with the business done so far. He added: “We’re really pleased with what we have done but that doesn’t mean that we are there yet. I feel we need at least two players to come in and with the commitments we have from players agreeing to re-sign, we can be full of optimism. That said, there is plenty of hard work to get through first before we kick a ball in anger.”