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Note that this page is from our Gresley Rovers archive. It may not be related to the new Gresley Rovers (formerly Gresley FC until 2020).
Story posted: Saturday, 9th October 2004

New signings
Jimmy Turner

Jimmy Turner

Manager Gary Norton has strengthened his squad ahead of the FA Trophy game against Spalding United at the Moat Ground.
Into the squad comes 23-year-old defender Jimmy Turner, brought in to provide cover for Jamie Hood who begins a minimum 3 game suspension for his dismissal in the 1-0 win at Mossley last month.

With Hood facing an additional charge for comments made towards the officials and therefore facing a further spell of suspension the Club wanted to provide adequate cover.

Turner was on a 1 year contract at Derby County where he played mainly Reserve team games. He has spent time in the conference on loan at Forest Green Rovers where he played at centre half. He was recently being tracked by Conference side Farnborough Town and there is still hope that the move could still take place.

Norton commented "We have been tracking Jimmy for a few weeks now and have been aware of Farnborough's interest. There is a slight chance that the move there still could materialize but Jimmy has agreed to help us out whilst Hood completes his suspension. If the move to the conference doesn't work out he has said that he'd be more than happy to stay and fight for a place in our squad, which is great news for us. He can operate at centre half, right back, or right midfield so he not only brings with him quality but versatility too. Central defence is the only area of the side that we don't currently have any real natural competition for places but with Jimmy joining us, we certainly have that now."

The Moat boss has also agreed a month long loan deal with Conference North league leaders Alfreton Town to bring in 22 year old goalkeeper Gavin Saxby as cover for the injured Dale Belford.

Saxby has been at Alfreton since the end of the 2001/2 campaign and showed why he is so highly rated when called upon a number of times last season. He has just completed a loan spell at Premier division Matlock Town.

Said Norton "Our goalkeeping situation has been a worry since we learnt that Dale was struggling with his back three games ago. It was then that we drew up a shortlist of potential loan targets if we needed to bring someone in and that plan has been in operation since Saturday night. Saul Deeney at Notts County was our main target but Gary Mills stated that he didn't want to loan him out. All the others on the list were from Conference clubs and the problem has been that most of them didn't want their player cup tied in the FA Trophy. The league is my priority and after his good performance the other night I'm happy to use James Pemberton in the Trophy but I wanted to make sure that we had some quality and experienced cover for the forthcoming league games in case it was needed. If James plays well on Saturday again then it gives me a difficult decision to make but at least we know that in Gavin we have the resources available to be able to make that decision."
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