Assistant manager Gav Skelton was on – what’s happening in the transfer window – question answering duties after the game on Saturday, and he confirmed that work is ongoing as the push to add more to the group continues.
“We want to add bodies, we’ve made that clear, and hopefully that’ll come to fruition soon,” he said. “Is it frustrating at times - of course, but I have every confidence that we’ll get there.
“I know it’s boring when you keep getting the same answer, but we definitely want three or four more in.
“It’s just that you think you’re there, Greg works tirelessly, sometimes you’re frustrated for him because it’s really positive news in the morning, and as the day goes on it can get more frustrating, because everyone’s looking for the same type of player.
“For some reason players seem to leave it later and later than they used to. That’s just part of it, people on tours, bigger squads, all those frustrations, but everyone’s working tirelessly and hopefully they’ll come to fruition sooner rather than later.”
On where the additions are likely to be, he added: “I think we’ve got a good base to work from, there’s only certain areas we feel we need to add to.
“There’s no hiding which areas they are. Apart from the top end of the pitch, we’re probably in a strong position.
“Everyone’s looking for the same type of player. That goes on, that search goes on, there are a lot of names, you think you’re there then hit a brick wall with it, then it’s back on. I have every faith it will come to fruition.”
"We’re no further forward just at the moment with that,” he confirmed when asked about the offer for a player manager Paul Simpson had talked about earlier in the week.
“But we’re still looking for permanents and loans. Over the last couple of years, the market’s changed in terms of things like that, people potentially keep people for longer and they have bigger squads.
“At the end of the day, everyone wants a striker that’s 6ft 7in, runs like the wind, scores 30 goals a season and is cheap. So, it doesn’t really change in terms of that.”
An obvious question was to see if any potential loan options had cropped up having seen the Newcastle team up close.
“That will be more when we look back on the game,” he said. “While we’re here we’re more focused on taking in stuff that we’ve been fortunate enough to work at in Scotland.
“I thought first half was really pleasing. If you were being critical we should have scored more goals. You want to be clinical and put the game to bed.
“Second half they still had a sniff and you could see they grew in confidence and energy levels, caused us problems and we stopped doing what we’d been doing well.
“That’s why they had a couple of opportunities to get back into it, but thankfully we’ve been professional and won the game.”
