Signing them up
STOCKPORT County manager Jim Gannon hopes to confirm new contract extensions for more of his players over the coming days, with Kaine Felix and Sam Minihan set to commit their future to the club.
Four of the Hatters squad put pen to paper on new deals last week, with goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe and centre-half Michael Clarke agreeing contracts that keep them at Edgeley Park until 2018.
Gary Stopforth had his contract extended until this weekend after delaying his departure to Australia until the end of the month, while defender Mark Cartwright has signed until the end of the season.
Gannon now wants to build on that positivity, and was on the verge of tying down Felix and Minihan to new deals as the Express went to print on Tuesday.
“We have agreed a deal for Kaine, but the paperwork still needs to be done on that one,” he told the club’s official website.
“Sam Minihan is waiting to be signed up too, plus there are others I need to talk to so I’m looking forward to having a chat with the guys this week.”
County agreeing new contracts with several of their key players is a huge boost for them ahead of an important few weeks.
They are just two points outside the play-offs, leaving them in seventh place in the National League North table ahead of this weekend’s clash with promotion rivals Darlington.
Gannon now hopes that his team will be at their best in that game after finalising new deals for some of the squad.
“Obviously there’ been a lot of negotiating behind the scenes with the Board regarding my own contract, but now that has been settled I’m starting to visualise how the team will progress this season and into next season,” he said.
“Gary Stopforth can play in the Darlington game, and if his departure is delayed for any reason we can just continue it as long as we need, so that was the first bit of business we needed to do for January because it’s a big month.
“Max Cartwright has done a good job since coming on non-contract terms so we wanted to reward him for what he’s done and keep the defence and defensive midfield lines really secure with the players we’ve got too.
“We want to secure this group of players because I think they’re growing, so we have taken a really positive step.
“I’m really pleased that we’ve started the process now because we’re looking forward to the rest of this season in confidence, but we can also look forward to next season knowing that a strong core and backbone of players will still be here from this team.”