Rose confident of welcoming trio of new faces to Frickley Athletic

The Blues boss has been desperate to improve his leaking defence in recent weeks and is confident three new faces will do just that ahead of Saturday’s tough-looking trip to AFC Fylde in the Evo-Stik Premier League (kick-off 3pm).

“Hopefully this week we’ll have a new goalkeeper, a new right-back and a new centre-half in,” said Rose.

“They’re not all signed, sealed and delivered yet but I’m 99 per cent certain they’ll go through.

“I said I needed to improve us at the back, we’ve conceded four goals in each of our last three games, and I’ve done that.

“With these new signings we’ll have signed a whole new back four and two new goalkeepers.”

Full-back Charlie Fisher and goalkeeper Darren Shirt recently arrived to bolster competition for places.

The Blues saw their last match, at home against FC United of Manchester, postponed at the weekend owing to the snowfall and freezing temperatures.

It did not help ease Frickley’s expected fixture pile-up towards the end of the season but it did help give a number of his walking wounded vital recovery time.

Gavin Allott and Matty Bloor were the main beneficieries, with Allott carring a knock and Bloor suffering sore hamstrings.