Toolstation NCEL Division One
Knaresborough Town manager Paul Stansfield
Paul Stansfield admits his summer recruitment drive at Knaresborough Town has more-or-less gone completely to plan.
Stansfield told Non League Yorkshire in April that he wanted to sign experience. He has certainly achieved that as Gregg Anderson (Tadcaster Albion), Dan Clayton (Thackley) and Harrogate Railway pair Steve Bromley and Greg Kidd have arrived at Manse Lane.
“We have delivered on our aims as we have got the players we identified in,” Stansfield told Non League Yorkshire.
“Gregg Anderson is going to be a real leader. His experience is exactly what we need.
“Greg Kidd gives athleticism and energy down the left. Bromers (Steve Bromley) gives us goals.
“Dan Clayton, who is injured at the minute, will be a great signing when he comes back.
“All four have great experience from playing in leagues higher and that’s important.
“Apart from missing out on maybe one player, we got all our targets. We didn’t need a lot as we have a super squad of players.”
Knaresborough have been fairly free-scoring in pre-season with the 4-1 win at Pickering Town and 5-2 victory at Garforth Town being the highlights.
However, there has been cause for concern in one area for Stansfield.
“We’re scoring a lot of goals, but we need to cut out conceding the sloppy ones,” he said.
“We conceded another penalty when we played at Garforth. We did the same at Pickering when we won 4-1.
“We also conceded from a short corner at Garforth which is frustrating because Garforth didn’t create very much. We gifted them goals and we need to get smart to that before the season starts.”
Although disappointed with the two goals that they conceded, Stansfield felt his side were in control at Garforth.
“I thought in the first half when they played 4-5-1, it was almost defence versus attack with everyone in their half with no chances,” he said.
“We tinkered with our shape in the second half. They brought on another striker and it opened up some space and once we had some space to play into we played really well.
“We cut them open and could have scored a few more.”