Source: Northern_Echo
Staunton frustrated as Keltie opts to join Imps
Darlington will today sign a defender from the League of Ireland, but former Quaker Clark Keltie will join relegation rivals Lincoln City despite last week agreeing on a return to the club.[LNB] The Newcastle-born midfielder has trained for the last month with Darlington and told manager Steve Staunton he would return to The Northern Echo Arena.[LNB] He left 18 months ago for Rochdale, but was a free agent having been released last month, and Staunton told the media last week the 26-yearold would put pen to paper on a six-month deal.[LNB] However, Keltie this week began a trial with Lincoln and has instead agreed to join Chris Sutton's side who are two are places above Darlington in League Two.[LNB] Keltie was due to rejoin Darlington on Monday, but he failed to answer calls from Quakers and it transpires he was in Lincolnshire with the Imps.[LNB] A frustrated Staunton explained: Through his agent Clark agreed to sign last week. He had previously agreed to go to Lincoln for a couple of days trial and he had to honour that.[LNB] I'm disappointed he has gone to Lincoln, especially as we had agreed terms. But there's not much we can do about it now.[LNB] Staunton will now turn his attentions to other targets, including Irish right-back Simon Madden.[LNB] The 21-year-old, a former trainee at Leeds United, will sign today having left Shamrock Rovers where he was a team-mate of fellow new boy Tadhg Purcell.[LNB] Staunton hopes Madden will be joined in a new-look defence by Darlington-born Alan White who is surplus to requirements at Luton Town.[LNB] We know about Alan's situation at Luton and we are actively looking into it, said Staunton, who was speaking last night during a fans' forum at The Northern Echo Arena.[LNB] We know Luton are looking to offload three or four players and we are speaking to their manager.[LNB] There's not much more I can say on that because we are still speaking to the Luton manager. But he is a player we are interested in.[LNB] Having last week recruited Gary Dempsey and Purcell, plus Madden today, Staunton last night admitted he wants to bring in more players ahead of Saturday's home game with Aldershot Town.[LNB] He added: We've got three new faces in so far in January and, hopefully, we'll have two or three more before the weekend and we won't be finished there.[LNB] I'm looking to make two signings next week and then we should be done, although we could maybe bring one or two on loan after that if need be.[LNB]
