The second week of the January transfer window ended in quite a dramatic way for the Blues with manager Paul Simpson announcing his third winter signing just 24-hours prior to the visit of Newport County.
And he confirmed after the win against the Exiles that he’s hoping to add more to the squad this coming week.
“I hope we’re close,” he said. “I said yesterday that I didn’t want to be discussing or thinking about anybody who couldn’t affect the Newport game, that’s disrespectful to the players who were going to be involved.
“I’ve left all that to Greg [Abbott], I’m sure he’s working away in the background. I’m hoping we will have one more before next weekend, another one to come in.
“Then I’ll just have to count the pennies and see what we’ve got left, and see if there are any other areas we think we need to strengthen.
“I’ll speak to Greg and see where we’re up to with it. Because he does a lot of the groundwork in the background and making sure everything’s in place.
“I would like to think if it’s going to happen it will be in the early part of next week. If it’s not we’re going to have to look at other options, because we have got other options that we’re considering.
“And we’ll then have another discussion around other areas of the group that we think we might need to strengthen. We’ll count the pennies and see what’s left and what we can afford to do.”
There will certainly be competition for places with players also due back form injury in the short to medium term.
“I’m hoping that Jack Ellis will be back in three or four weeks and we’ve got to make a decision as to whether we can get through that period with just Joel Senior as that right wing-back or right-back, and who else might be able to fill in there.
“The rest of the areas, I’m satisfied with what we’ve got. We’ll see how we go over the next week or two.
“Ben Barclay is also very close, I’m hoping he’ll play maybe 60 minutes on Tuesday night at Workington, if he feels confident enough to do that.
“He’s had a good week training with us and he’s looking good. He’s got a brilliant attitude, Ben, he’s a real good character to have around and hopefully he’ll be available very soon.”