‘Loan star has helped to lift standards even higher’

LEEK Town boss Neil Baker admits he was pleasantly surprised to land Dan Trickett-smith on loan.

The attacker, pictured, made the loan switch from League Two side Port Vale last month to embark on another spell with Blues.

And Baker says his arrival in to his squad has helped the other players to hit new heights.

“Dan is settling in nicely. We didn’t expect him to come in and set the world alight because he’s not played a lot of football this season,” explained Baker.

“We wanted him to fit in to the team and get some game time under his belt. We know the ability he has will come out and at Carlton he was instrumental in a lot of our good play.

“We had heard he might be available, but I thought it might be tough to get him back purely because of the level we play at.

“I felt that Vale might want him to play higher, and that could be the case with Dan.

“But his primary concern was playing football and he enjoyed his previous spell with us.

“The beauty about bringing in a good new player is that it lifts the standards of others.

“It’s amazing when they come to training for the first time and they (the players) are all at it and raise their games to show what they are about.

“I’ve got some really good attacking options. There’s four good forwards and the attacking midfielders, so I’m fortunate that I can change things around if needed and not weaken the team.”

Trickett-smith was set to be involved in last night’s encounter at Ilkeston.

That was the last match before non-league clubs were forced to lock down for a month because of Government coronavirus regulations.