National North
Farsley Celtic manager Russ Wilcox says he is close to strengthening his squad.
Farsley romped to a 5-0 victory at Thorne Colliery on Tuesday night and Wilcox is hoping to confirm the additions of two players in the very near future.
The National North campaign kicks off on 6th August.
“(The recruitment process) has been fine and I think you just have to take your time,” Wilcox told Non League Yorkshire.
“There was a little bit of stress about bringing a goalkeeper in and a centre-back but hopefully we have got that addressed.
“I can’t give you any names at the moment on those two days but we are hopefully going to be boxed off in the next week or so.
“I’m just waiting for one of them to hopefully come on loan. The other one will hopefully be a permanent deal, but apologies I can’t give any names.”
Farsley have kept a substantial amount of the side who pulled off the great escape.
But Wilcox concedes recruiting during the summer has been hard.
“It has been a mixed bag,” he said.
“We tried to keep Kennedy Digie and straightaway I didn’t think it would happen.
“You sort of know he’s ambitious and he wanted to go full-time.
“He has ended up at Gloucester and they’re hybrid and they train three mornings a week.
“He wanted that more so it was always going to be difficult to keep him for reasons of where we finished in the table and also the budget we have got.
“We can’t compete with a lot of the clubs (in the National North) financially so that has been difficult (when recruiting).
“But we’ll keep going.”
Wilcox also agrees the loan market is vital for clubs such as Farsley with lower budgets.
“You look at what we did last year and the best two signings I made were David Robson from Hull and Kennedy Digie from Altrincham (both on loan),” he said.
“They were key signings who helped us massively to get safe.
“(With loan signings), especially David Robson, he’s getting fantastic coaching from (Hull goalkeeping coach) Barry Richardson and he’s training with the first team so he’s improving himself as a player.
“He comes to our club in very good condition and he’s a very good goalkeeper.
“So you’re getting him for a good price.
“That’s key as well – you’re getting a could-be top class goalkeeper who is getting top class coaching, for a small fee.”