DENNIS Wise's arrival at the County Ground will go some way to providing Town's missing' ingredient yet Andy Gurney warns against blindly accepting the bookmakers'' hype.

Labrokes, Coral and Bet365 all have the Wiltshire men installed as favourites, or at least joint favourites to win League Two at this stage.

The odds range from 6/1 to 8/1 with a signing yet to be made or a pre-season ball kicked.

Gurney isn't remotely bothered by the bookies' stance and points to Watford as the classic example of making odds look stupid.

The 32-year-old said: "I don't take too much notice of the odds at this stage.

"I think Bristol City and Nottingham Forest were the favourities to win League One last season.

"Neither went up or even made the play-offs.

"Also, if you look at Watford, I think they were one of the favourites to be relegated from the Championship and look where they are now.

"Even before the new manager came we were going to be one of the teams with decent odds because relegated sides are often tipped to come straight back up.

"We have to ignore all that, come back, work hard and get off to a good start. That's so, so important."

However, Gurney admits that the odds for success cannot have been harmed by the respective arrivals of Wise and Gus Poyet.

Gurney has always had a touch of bite' to his game and felt Town's failure to win the battle cost them dearly on too many occasions last season.

Wise certainly has bite' in abundance and Gurney is looking forward to seeing that, both on and off the pitch.

He said: "As a player Dennis Wise has always been very committed with a massive will to win.

"Last season I felt there were times when we were a little bit too easy to beat.

"That's not a question of a lack of effort, it's too many people not performing at any one time but also a case where we didn't win the right to play our football having not stamped our foot enough to win the battle.

"That's obviously something we need to look at next season if we are going to have the success that everybody wants."