Source: Northern_Echo
Cooper hopes to tie up deals before Cats visit
DARLINGTON hope to have made additions to their ranks by the time they play their first friendly of pre-season at the weekend. Quakers manager Mark Cooper is confident of adding at least two more players before Premier League Sunderland provide the opposition at The Northern Echo Arena on Saturday. Last week Michael Brough arrived as one of the seven players that have signed since the end of last season, and Cooper is currently engaged in advanced talks with a defender and a striker. Cooper wishes to keep their identities under wraps though last week in The Northern Echo he admitted to wanting Peterborough forward Liam Hatch. Both targets are with Football League clubs and the manager expects a final answer from the pair today, while he also revealed Grimsby Town forward Adrian Forbes is on trial. We're working hard to bring in a couple of players. There's nothing to report at the moment but I think we're close on a couple of deals but nothing concrete, said Cooper. I'm confident of there being at least two signings before the weekend. Forbes, 31, who is on the transfer list at Grimsby, has played for a series of clubs including Norwich, Swansea, Blackpool and Luton where he played alongside Quakers assistant manager Richard Dryden. Cooper added: Richard played with Adrian at Luton and as we're looking for decent characters and decent players we thought we'd have a look at him as he falls into that bracket. We need one or two experienced players because we've got a lot of young players in the squad. So Adrian's training with us but I saw Adam Proudlock's name linked to us and I don't know where that one has come from because there's nothing in that. Chris Lumsdon, however, will not be part of Quakers' Blue Square Bet Premier campaign after reaching an agreement to leave the club. The midfielder had a year remaining on his contract but having endured an injury-hit first season with the club the 30-year-old is to leave. We've reached an agreement for him to leave the football club, said Cooper. It was one of them situations that needed sorting out, it's a mutual parting of the ways. I don't think he's fit, he has struggled with an injury and is just not physically up to it. Bradford manager Peter Taylor has expressed his dismay after learning recent signing Jake Speight has been jailed after pleading guilty to assault. Neither the Bantams nor Speight's previous club Mansfield had been made aware of the 24-year-old's situation until his agent informed Bradford on Friday the striker would be appearing in court that morning. Taylor said: This incident happened in February and Jake and his agent never told anyone. That's why I didn't know.