Day 92

In a frustratingly-comedic turn of events, Jean-François Christophe returned to full training only to injury winger Simon Russell in his first session. Russell's injury isn't bad, thankfully—he'll only be out for a couple of weeks. I think we can handle that.

The Reserves faced Rocester in a friendly match today. It was my chance to look at trialists Chalwe, Ahmadi, Tô, Fatih Akyel, and Mofokeng.

It only took seven minutes for Tô to threaten. The striker turned sharply on the edge of the box and fired a shot inches wide of the post. We piled on the pressure, with right-sided players Mofokeng and Rodney putting several crosses into the box in quick succession.

Tô put us in front on 37 minutes after a one-two pass, turn, and shot with Cunningham. He looked great value—a cut above the other players on the pitch.

Rodney doubled the lead three minutes later, opportunistically running onto Park's speculative cross when the Rocester defenders stood on their heels.

Fatih Akyel added our third on 53 minutes when he broke off his marker and Burgess's corner met his head. Burgess, who'd been poor up to that point, sprang to life, firing a vicious strike towards the corner of the goal moments later. Then in the 68th minute the winger wasted an opportunity to get a goal, after doing the hard work to win the ball inside the penalty area.

We took the game out 3-0. Ahmadi was quiet, but the other trialists played well. I was also delighted to see good performances from Park, Cunningham, and Rodney.

I got more scout reports today—on the midfielders recommended two days ago in a backroom meeting and on the players I asked my scouts to looks at yesterday. Newcastle youngster Michael Richardson looks like he'd be a great addition to the side. He has an incredible engine. I approached his club with a loan offer.

Falkirk's Dale Fulton is decent, but not as good as Richardson. Since they play the same position, I won't be going after the young Scot unless Richardson turns sour. Liverpool defender Stephen Sama is similarly talented but unworthy of an approach.

Kiwi free agent Steven Old still sounds like a good bet after Ian Gardner's report. Hopefully he'll join us on trial shortly and I can take a closer look.

And Dunfermline castaway Craig Easton looks like a definite purchase, except we have no means of signing him at this stage. I don't want to agree to a January transfer so far ahead of the new year, and a loan deal is off the table. I'll have to remember to re-evaluate closer to that date.