County embargo stays in place

The Magpies, who play Wigan in an FA Cup fourth-round replay at the DW Stadium on Tuesday night, were working to get the embargo imposed on them by the Football League lifted after securing new investment.County were barred from signing players when they were served with a winding-up petition from HM Revenue and Customs over an unpaid six-figure tax bill.They need to satisfy Football League bosses they have settled their debts and are still operating within their salary cap before they are allowed to strengthen their squad.Despite winning a third successive League Two game at home to Barnet on Saturday, Dave Kevan believes new signings are needed to maintain the club's promotion challenge.Kevan, who met with director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson and his assistant Tord Grip last week to draw up a list of targets, said: "We had a long meeting last Thursday and we discussed the players we have at our club and possible players that would strengthen us."We have got to see what we can do on that front, but at the moment we would like to bring in three or four players."However, there is still a lot of work to be done on those so I would rather focus on the players we have here at the moment because they are doing a very good job for us."But we know we need reinforcements and hopefully they will come soon."Kevan is monitoring Ricky Ravenhill's fitness ahead of the trip to Wigan.The tough-tackling midfielder was forced off after half an hour of the 2-0 win over Barnet with concussion."He had to come off with a head injury. He was a bit concussed and felt sick, so we will have to see how he goes," said Kevan.Jamie Clapham, Ravenhill's replacement against the Bees, or Craig Westcarr will come into the side should the 29-year-old miss out.

Source: Team_Talk