Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us shortly after goalkeeper Harry Lewis had signed at Brunton Park.
“I’ve made it perfectly clear that it was an area of the squad I wanted to make additions to,” he told us. “I’m really pleased to get Harry in and he’s a player who I liked as a young goalkeeper when he was at Southampton. His name always seemed to pop up when I was working at the FA.
“We enquired about him when he went to Bradford but financially we weren’t in a position to compete. Now with us being at a higher level and in a different position financially, we were able to do it.
“I’m really pleased, he’s a good age with good experience. He’s played over 100 games and been a starter when fit for Bradford and done really well. I’m delighted we’ve added another one to the group and I think it certainly makes the goalkeeping department stronger.
“He’s a good physical size to start with, which is important as a goalkeeper. He’s a good shot stopper, can come and claim crosses, he ticks all the boxes in terms of a goalkeeper. He's had a good schooling at Southampton, and got good experience with the number of games he's played at Bradford.
“I think he played over 50 games last year for Bradford City, he's played every game for them this season. He's got good experiences coming in, and he’s used to an expectation because if you play for a club like Bradford City, they expect you to win games, expect you to go out and perform. We need a goalkeeper who can come in and perform. And I think he fills that role for us.
“He’s a new face and he’s delighted to be here. He jumped at the opportunity once we’d got permission from Bradford to speak to him, he was really enthusiastic. He’s come here to try and help us stay in League One, that’s the challenge for everybody who comes in. We all need to do what we can to make sure we stay in League One next season.
“Once Jokull is fit we will have four goalkeepers in the group but I think you’ve got to have a strong goalkeeping department. There’s obviously going to be goalkeepers who aren’t happy because they aren’t playing but their challenge is to do enough to stay involved. We need to get Jokull fit which will hopefully be in the next week or two.
“Until anybody tells me they don’t want to be here or until a club comes and says they want to take a goalkeeper away, then we’ll go with four goalkeepers. It gives us good ammunition for players in training and hopefully they’ll continue to push each other and work each other like they have so far this season and hopefully that will bring the rewards for us.”
“It’s a little bit harsh on Gabe because he’s done very well in the games he’s played,” he admitted. “He’s shown us that there’s real potential there and we’re talking to Gabe about staying longer and trying to extend his contract. Hopefully he’ll agree to that and that will be a reward for what he’s done so far. It also gives him that platform to go and develop even more.
“As a young player, he's on a young pro’s contract, which is a real low basic wage. So I wanted to reward him for what he's done so far, because I think he deserves that. I'm a big believer that if a player is doing well, they shouldn't be coming to us, we should be going to them.
“We went to him last week and talked about extending the contract for him and giving him a reward. I'm still waiting to hear back, but I hope that that will be resolved very quickly and Gabe can settle down, and can continue to work with Dave Timmins and pushing other goalkeepers and develop into a good, good pro.”