We caught up with manager Paul Simpson this afternoon to get an update on incoming and potential outgoing signings, and the injury situation with the current squad.
Speaking first about the arrival of Dom Sadi yesterday, he said: “I'm delighted. I think he's a really exciting young player.
“Well, I say young, he's about to turn 21 soon, but he is a young player in terms of his experience. But I like what I saw in the bits that we've seen of him. He's trained really well today, he's settled in well with the group.
“I'm looking forward to seeing him getting working, forcing his way into the team and showing everybody the ability that he's got. He's a midfield player and that's his primary position, but he can also play in wide areas. He can play as a 10, but he's just a good technical footballer.
“He's really bright. He's got a fantastic record in development football in terms of goals and assists. From what I've seen in training this morning with us, he's certainly showed that. He certainly can see a pass. He's got good balance, he’s decent with both feet.
“He's done a full pre-season, played all the games throughout pre-season. He only played 45 minutes of a game on Tuesday at Peterborough because he knew he was travelling up, but he was already on the coach to go up when we'd got it all agreed, so we didn't want to disrupt their plans.
“He's fit, he's done all the work, and now it's a decision whether he starts or whether he just goes into the group.”
On the continuing search for further signings, he said: “I'm not expecting anybody else ahead of this weekend, but we are working on a couple of things at the moment.
“The deadline is getting closer, and we're hoping to get at least one more in, and then we'll see where we go from there.”
We then went on to ask the gaffer for an injury update: “Terell is a bit of a concern. We're going to give him as long as possible up to the weekend to see how he goes. But it's not a long-term issue. That's the main thing, we'll just see how he goes between now and Saturday.
“Ben Williams has trained all week. There's no problem there. It was a kick, and he was just getting cramps in his calf because of the kick that he'd got on the side of his leg, so he's fine.
“There were a few other bumps and bruises from the weekend, as you would expect in a really competitive League Two fixture. But everybody's been fit to train and they’re all ready for the weekend.”
On the longer-term injuries, he said: “It's a long list. I suppose the easiest thing to say is the closest two are Cameron Harper and Dylan McGeouch. We're hoping that they'll rejoin training by the end of next week to be maybe available for the Saturday, or if not the Saturday, hopefully for the game against Forest in the Cup.
“The others are all coming along nicely, but we're talking months away. I would think Jack Robinson's probably the next one, which is likely to be end of September if everything goes to plan.
“Callum Guy's got another appointment with the specialist and some IKD testing to see how the difference in strength between the muscles is coming on and if we can get that down to an acceptable level, then he'll be ready to come and start dripping into the training.
“With Taylor Charters and Ethan Robson, they're much longer and we're probably talking October, end of October, before they're going to be joining us.
“The rest we're just going to have to be patient with. Anton Dudik is back in training as well. We are looking at the possibility of al loan move but nothing's happened at the moment.
“He's trained fully now for a couple of weeks, but we haven't had any enquiries for a loan. We'll see what happens over the next few weeks, but the chances are, without me being disrespectful, that he’ll be going to a National League or National League North side, so that can still happen when the window closes which means it isn’t a mad rush for that one.
“It’s the same with the other young boys. We need to keep them around at the moment because Sam and Jake Allan have been involved with the team recently.
“Aran Fitzpatrick is back in full training again now as well, as is Freddie O’Donoghue, though he's been involved with the youth team more. It's a case of making sure we have the right bodies for our first team before we start thinking about sending them out on loan.”
