The Ducks asked Maynard to sign on after he impressed manager Tony Thompson and his team during the club's pre-season friendly at higher league Brackley Town on Tuesday night.

Maynard, 27, who was at Halesowen Town last season, approached the Ducks for a trial as the Watford-based midfielder wanted to play closer to his home.

Referring to the Brackley game, Thompson said: "He (Maynard) did well. In the first half we played him right of five, then in the middle of three as an attacking role.

"He looked natural going forward.

"It's early days, but he was comfortable on the ball and comfortable in areas supporting the ball."

Maynard, who is also interested one or two other clubs, will return for United's game at Thatcham next Tuesday.

Tommo said that he was pleased with how the 3-5-2 formation they were trying out was shaping up.

With reference to United's performance overall in a 5-2 defeat, he said: "I was pleased with certain aspects of it. We are working on a new shape. That shape was good. We didn't concede (the goals) because of the shape, we conceded goals by individual errors.

"Going forward we played well. If it hadn't been for the individual errors, it would have been a different score."

Hotshot Nathan Graham got both United's goals, while one downside was the injury to Carl Kavanagh, who suffered slightly strained medial knee ligaments and will be out of action for three to four weeks.

The Ducks, who were without five key players at Brackley, travel to Bedford Town on Saturday.

Check out next week's Bucks Herald for the latest Ducks news.