The unofficial AFC Rushden & Diamonds messageboard

BartonRaz wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 8:27 pm

sussexdiamond wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 7:01 pm Good to hear we have signed Patrick Casey on league papers, plus Ryan Dove from Cogenhoe and most importantly Jesse Akubine, potentially a really good prospect on pre season form. I would like us to sign the trialist keeper. Of all the others it has been difficult to say which would make us stronger as I have not seen all games and get confused with them. By next Saturday I would expect Peaksy to have signed two more, maybe three.

Jesse Akubuine has been standout trialist for me. I'd be interested to know how he's ended up here though, as he seems to have spent the last 2/3 seasons in Scotland playing for various clubs.

Ryan Dove we've seen very little of but clearly he's done enough to impress Peaks.

I know they've been after Dove for a while and he's been training with the first team before. Maybe his goal scoring record at cogenhoe has earned himself a position at the club as already said, we've see little of him

Regarding Jesse A, I believe he was recommended by a former player who is now a manager of a UCL club who thought he was better suited to our Level. He could well be proved right!

Massiah then any good . Has a lot of experience because of his age , gets a few cards tho . Maybe that’s what we need . Was he any good vs histon?

Once a 20 goals a season player but according to Wikipedia only 4 or 5 a season over past 5 years, but only played less than 15 games each season. Not sure that he will be the Messiah we have been waiting for, but as ever we live in hope.

Other than the trialist keeper do we need anymore signings. Defence seems well covered, we can even call on Farrell and Hicks in emergency. Midfield we have Acquaye, Jesse A, Hicks, Johnson, Rogers, Farrell, Curtis. Upfront we now have Lorraine, Bowen, Dove and Mcdonald. I would maybe like an outright winger to be added, other than that no more signings. In fact over the next couple of months we may see some departures

Obviously depends on the formation we intend to use but I'd like to see a defensive midfielder and a decent winger. Perhaps if we lack in wide players we could play 3 at the back and use the wing backs as the width with 3 central players and 2 upfront. We have a lot of box to box midfielders and a few attack minded midfielders but still lacking an out and out defensive midfielder imo.

In terms of players that are actually confirmed as being signed, I’d say we are at least one winger short. I also think we’re lacking a physical presence in central midfield.

As YoungDiamond said, it depends upon the formation, but if we're opting for 442 then I'd like to see another striker who offers us something different to the current crop. Lorraine, Bowen and Dove are all big, target man style strikers, and although I'm yet to see McDonald play, from the photos I've seen he looks like like he's from the same mould. I'd love to see someone with real pace and good movement who can stretch opposition defences.