No panic from Duff over new signings
Robins boss will take his time in bid to bolster his squad,
MICHAEL Duff is determined not to panic in his hunt for new recruits despite being reduced to 14 fit senior players for Tuesday night’s 2-2 friendly draw with Shrewsbury Town.
Striker Reuben Reid, out after knee surgery, was joined on the sidelines by left-backs Chris Hussey - yet to appear in pre-season - and Josh Debayo, midfielder Conor Thomas and striker George Lloyd.
Tahvon Campbell opened his account for the club with both goals against League One side, who replied through Sean Whalley and the impressive Abo Eisa - brother of Robins’ record sale Mo.
After the game, Robins boss Duff confirmed that midfield was his main area of focus as looks to bolster his squad, but also wants another forward to cover Reid’s absence.
“We know we need bodies in and it’s not changed,” said Duff. “It’s not that we are all of a sudden looking for players. We need a few in.
“We know where we’re at, but I won’t just take the first three or four players thrown at me.
“We’ll end up having to get another one after that if they are not the right ones.
“There is no magic formula and we get offered a lot of players every day, from all sorts of different levels for all sorts of different prices.
“We need to make sure we get the right ones and it’s important we do protect the group as regards off the pitch and we have to get the right ones on the pitch.
“We are looking to strengthen the middle of the pitch and we are looking for a centre forward too, with Reuben (Reid) out.
“We’ll see, but we’re not stupid and we know if you are going into a league game with three youth team players on the pitch, that’s not ideal.
“It’s no disrespect to them, it’s a good
experience for them, but when you are going into the season, we’ll wait and see what happens.”
Both the loan and permanent markets are being explored, with Duff aiming to bring his squad up to 21 or 22 players with the opening game at Leyton Orient now nine days away.
“If it’s a good player, it’s a good player, whether it’s a loan or a permanent,” he said.
“Sometimes you might get what you might deem a better player as you only pay half his wages, so you get a £1,000 player for £500 for example, but he’s not your player.
“You might get someone like Luke Varney last year and I repeat it all the time because he was there.
“You do get lucky sometimes and you land on one, but we are searching extensively, but we won’t go and sign any Tom, Dick or Harry.”
Midfielder Reece Cole played in three games for the Robins as they considered a loan switch from Brentford, but he was not involved against Shrewsbury.
“It’s not a ‘no’ with Reece,” said Duff. “We’ve had a look at him, we like him as a lad.
“He did okay, but at the minute we need someone who is going to go straight into the team and if Reece was in my squad I wouldn’t be disappointed, but we need to improve the first XI.”
Abo Eisa, who scored the second Shrewsbury goal, is available for loan, and after being asked about him, Duff said: “He was loaned to Colchester last season and did well.
“But there is no point in me talking about specific players because if I talked about every name that I’ve talked about today, we’d be here until midnight.
“There are lots of players from all walks of life, from every league going. We need to make the right decisions about the right ones.”
Duff was pleased to see his fit players
come through against Shrewsbury on a warm evening, and only 72 hours after a tough workout against Leicester City on Saturday.
“It’s a boiling hot day, muggy and you could see how much Leicester took out of the legs,” he said.
“The lads will be better for the Saturday-tuesday as during the season they’ll have to do that.
“It was more about fitness than anything else, we know we can be better with the ball and we were sloppy at times, a little lethargic, but it’s the first time they’ve done that sort of volume and it’s gone up quite sharply.
“The Leicester game really did take it out of their legs but to get a result is good, it’s always pleasing never to get beaten.”
Campbell’s two goals were a big plus point as he finished smartly from a corner just before half-time then got up to convert a second-half penalty after he was fouled.
“It was good for him to get off the mark,” said Duff. “Alex (Addai) is a difficult one at the minute because he’s still learning the postion, but Tahv, if he does the things we want him to do it’ll get him goalscoring opportunities.
“He took the penalty well and also took the first goal well, showing his strength to get his touch and finish off. We are pleased for him to get up and running.
“A few lads had their first 90 minutes and there is one game left.
“They need to have done two or three 90 minutes going into a season, so they’ll be better for it.
“There are some tired legs in there, but after Saturday we have a full week to prepare then.”
One player given a runout was backup goalkeeper Rhys Lovett, and Duff said he may look to loan the 22-yearold out to get him some game time in the future.
“It’s something we’ll have to make a decision on. He needs to play, whether it’s here or elsewhere,” said Duff.
“You learn from experiences and he doesn’t brilliantly in training every day, but Scott (Flinders) is our number one at the minute.
“We need to make the decision whether he needs first team football to enhance his experiences.
“I thought he did ok. He made one mistake with a goal kick but we’ve not done any work on the goal kicks yet.
“Just because our players can go in the area doesn’t mean I want him to pass it there all the time.
“If they are going to pass it straight back to you, you might as well not give it to him.
“It’s part of his learning, but it’s not something we’ve worked on.
“He did all right, other than that. He swept up quite well, he rolled it out first half and his kicking was good in the second half.”