Kenny Shiels has admitted that he is keen to step up his search for some new players, having turned away 12 trialists already during pre-season.
Yesterday the ‘Candy Stripes’ faced Ardmore in a friendly game that featured the 13th player to show his skills in a bid to impress the manager as Vitaly Barinov partnered Ryan McBride in defence.
After the game Shiels kept his cards close to his chest regarding the performance of the 23-year-old Lativan but he did say he would meet with the player later in the week.
“I have to sit down and talk with him and make a decision on it and see where that goes,” he told the Derry News.
Shiels has already shown his willingness to back young players with Conor McDermott, Ronan Curtis and Rory Holden all making a breakthrough into the senior squad last season and he said he is hopeful of bringing more players in from the reserve set up this season.
“It’s according to what we do with our squad but you have young Matthew (Doherty) who scored the last goal yesterday and he is a very good player. He’s technically good but he just needs to get a bit stronger so that was good for him,” he explained.
“We have a lot of good lads coming through. Ronan Wilson, Stephen Duffy and Cathal Farren who has been scoring goals. We’re working hard to get the young players integrated into the senior team.”
The manager has made no secret of his desire to strengthen his defence in particular but he admitted that he was finding it difficult to find a suitable, experienced player.
“It’s really hard because my shopping basket doesn’t cater for that. If you’re looking for players that are mid to late 20s it’s hard to get them here. You have to go a European country with an economy that is quite low and maybe dip into that. That’s what we have been trying to do, venture into Eastern Europe.
“We just can’t get one over the line at the minute. They have to be better than what we have. The measurement is the young boys and if they’re not better than them then I don’t take them.”
The manager travelled to England on Friday to view some potential players but the game was called off due to a frozen pitch. With time ticking on before the start of the season in four weeks’ time, Shiels said he is keen to step up his search for some new players to give them time to fit into the ‘Candy Stripes’ system.
“It takes a while to get into how we play. You can’t bring a player over and throw them straight into a game. There’s a bedding in period that we need to look at so it’s getting the happy medium because when you bring them in and do they fit how we play,” insisted the manager.
“They have to fit into that category of player. I’m shopping a lot at the minute and hitting my head against a brick wall but you have to keep going. I’ve had twelve trialists in in total and I have taken any so they need to be better and in the price range.”

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