Armstrong’s loan knocked on Heed after Boro recall
GATESHEAD’S worst fears have been confirmed after Middlesbrough invoked a clawback clause on front man Luke Armstrong.
The 22-year-old former Blyth Spartans player has been recalled by his parent club after a successful spell on Tyneside.
Armstrong is set to sign a new improved contract at the Riverside after scoring eight goals in 16 games for Gateshead.
It would have been more had the striker, son of former Middlesbrough and Ipswich forward Alun Armstrong, not missed almost two months.
A hamstring injury sidelined the former Birmingham City trainee, who will now rejoin Middlesbrough on January 1.
He will miss Gateshead’s New Year’s Day derby at Hartlepool, but will line up for the Heed against Pools on Boxing Day at the International Stadium.
With yesterday’s FA Trophy first round tie at Salford postponed Armstrong still has four more games to play for Gateshead.
The last one will be on the final Saturday of the month at home to FC Halifax Town.
Boro are then likely to send Armstrong out for the second half of the season to a Football League club.
That will further test a young player with a bright future, who will hope to be in and around the first-team squad next season.
“Armstrong has done very well for us and Middlesbrough will have good options for him,” said Gateshead boss Steve Watson.
“We would have obviously liked to have kept him for the full season, but he is a Boro player and there was always the chance that he could be recalled.
“It’s disappointing and a situation I will now have to look at as we only have two other strikers at this moment in time.” Former Carlisle man Steven Rigg and the much-travelled Scott Boden are Gateshead’s resident forwards, with reinforcements required. The Tynesiders could lose a second influential loanee with Sunderland attacking midfielder Luke Molyneux’s half-season loan expiring next month. Watson, surprised that yesterday’s Trophy game at Salford was called off, is keen to keep the 20-year-old for the rest of the season. For that to happen all the stars have to align, Watson hopeful, but not counting his chickens. “Molyneux had to be patient and dig in to get back into the side and, to his credit, he’s done that,” Watson added. “He’s really come into his own in the last month and is a player that gives us another dimension. “There are a lot of moving parts to keeping him at Gateshead and nothing has been decided yet.
“The player, his agent and Sunderland are all involved in the decision, and we also have to be in a position to be able to keep him on.”
One piece of good news at the International Stadium is that the popular Watson has put pen to paper on a new contract.
The former Magpie has steered Gateshead to a play-off position at the halfway stage of the season against the odds.
“Like the players it’s until the end of the season, but I’m pleased to get it sorted as I’d been working without a contract,” he said.
Yesterday’s postponement has left Gateshead, currently seventh in the National League with five games to play in 15 days over the festive season.
“The Christmas period is always important, but we’ve got a fitter and younger squad that is capable of dealing with it.”
Any Trophy replay against Salford, meanwhile, would probably be staged in the week leading up to the second round on January 12.