Day 58

We had a backroom meeting today. Apparently Josh Gowling is unhappy with training—he thinks he shouldn't have to do any extra work. I turned off his free-kick-taking individual training focus, but left the preferred move training as is.

Meanwhile, I put Shuker on an individual regime emphasising free kick taking—at the behest of Grant Brown.

Brown also suggested that Conal Platt had the wrong squad status. The Irish midfielder should be considered "no longer needed." After shaking off my initial shock, I transfer-listed Platt. If we don't need him, then we should offload him as soon as possible. (Unfortunately, he's another of the "new" signings from before my arrival—so selling the lad won't be easy.)

Brown felt the same way about goalkeeping coach and Reserves keeper Chris Adamson. I disagreed—we need Adamson as an emergency player, to be called upon while I look for a loan signing if Anyon gets injured.

It took the Reserves less than twelve minutes to take the lead against Stafford Rangers. Rezgane beat his man before scoring with a powerful strike from just inside the box. Two minutes later, he missed an easy chance to double the lead.

Wasteful finishing from both sides kept the scoreline at 1-nil going into the break.

Stafford equalised in the 48th minute, with an opportunistic strike from Docker—who pounced on a deflected cross.

After an hour, I wasn't feeling too pleased with the efforts of the trialists. Rezgane's contributions all occurred in the opening 15 minutes, while Camaño looked like he thought he had better things to do with his evening than play football and Cuenca had been quiet all match.

Camaño still managed to pick up man of the match, though, thanks to his total dominance at the back. Six tackles, seven headers, and seven interceptions all went to his name. He may have been uninterested, but he was still by far and away the best player on the pitch.

I terminated the trials of Cuenca, Rezgane, and Thompson after the match. They haven't shown enough to justify further consideration. Camaño is still a chance, but I'll wait until I've seen him play one more game before I make a decision.

As I expected, selling Platt will not be an easy task.

Stevenage Reserves striker Ben May was mentioned as a potential signing during the backroom meeting. Brown compiled a report for me later that evening. He's good—better than any of our current attacking options. But signing him looks unlikely—we can't afford any transfer fee whatsoever, and he probably wouldn't be willing to join on loan.

I offered Conal Platt in an exchange deal, thinking "it's a long shot, but I might as well try." Stevenage accepted.

I had to haggle his wage demands down around £500 from £1,300 to £850 per week, raising the goal bonus offer by £20 and adding an £8,500 bonus for scoring 20 league goals in a season. But we got him, minutes before the transfer window closed. That ought to prove an interesting selection headache—three high-calibre strikers, May, Koroma, and Barnes-Homer, set to duke it out for the two available starting places.

The transfer won't go through until January 1st, mind you, so Koroma and Barnes-Homer have plenty of time to earn their stripes.