With many clubs around the country caught up in the hectic final hours of the summer transfer window on Thursday it was a noticeably quiet day at Brunton Park, with the bulk of the business having been done very early in the piece.
And manager Paul Simpson spoke again about the squad he now has at his disposal as more players return from injury.
“There was no sense of panic because I think we’ve tried to be prepared, we’ve been meticulous looking at what we think we need and what we can afford,” he said. “There’s no point going and looking in a Premier League basket if you haven’t got a Premier League budget.
“We’re looking in the right areas, to get the players in we need. I am really pleased with what we’ve done.
“It’s still very early for me to say they’ve all worked but the players who’ve come in are doing everything they can to be right and help us, and we’re doing everything we can to make it a settled one for them. So far I’m really pleased. Hopefully come January I’ll still be pleased with them all and we see where we go from there.”
“That’s why the work done by Greg and the scouts has been so important,” he continued. “In a football club the staff are massive.
“I talk about this all the time, we’ve got a fantastic group of staff who work out of the east stand offices, all doing a great job helping the club move forward, then we’ve got a football staff who all do their job.
“My way of managing is to put people into their jobs and let them get on with doing it. I’ll praise them when they're doing it well but I’ll also jump on them if they’re not.
“There’s only been a few slight occasions this season when I’ve had to jump onto something because it’s not been done well. But the recruitment I’m pleased with, as I’m pleased with all the staff so far.
“As a manager I’m only as good as the staff and the players. If they’re doing their job it doesn’t half make my job easier. Long may that continue.”
And on the makeup of the squad, he commented: “I’m happy with everything we’ve got to take us through to January.
“I’m still looking at players and trying to assess them as to whether they’re exactly what we want moving forward. I’ve also got to be fully aware leading up to January the loan signings.
“I think most of them there is a recall window in January, there’s a possibility I may lose some of them so I need to have ideas to who we could get to replace them.
“I’m not sitting here thinking I’ve made a mistake with x player and they need to go back in that window. Hopefully that will still be the case, and I’ll be doing enough with the players for their parent clubs to think it’s the right place for them and we can keep a bit of consistency for the second half of the season.”
And as for free agents, he said: “I think the way the directors and money people at the club have been with me so far, if something jumped out who was a free agent and I thought he could make a massive difference to us and I went to them, if it wasn’t going to be ridiculous one and worked within the budgets and financial parameters we work in, I think they would do something for us.
“I’ve never had that conversation with them, but they’ve been really supportive. The people running the club want to do it properly. They want it to be successful.
“It makes everybody’s life better if things are going well on the grass. If there’s something we can bring in that would help us, I think they would do something to try and get that to happen.”
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