6:40pm Tuesday 2nd June 2009
By Neil Meldrum
TOM Killick hopes to resolve Poole Town’s goalkeeping issues by the end of the week.
The Dolphins boss is set to meet New Milton Town stopper Nic Jones in the next few days over a proposed move to Tatnam.
Killick was rocked last month when Bournemouth Poppies swooped for influential title-winning keeper Jason Harvell.
And after opting out of signing first-choice target Martin Peters of Hamworthy United, Killick has now set his sights firmly on the highly-rated Jones.
Killick told the Echo: “I’m meeting Nic Jones and I have spoken to him on the phone, but we should be able to talk at some point in the next couple of days.
“When I spoke to Nic he seemed keen, but you never really know. The thing with Martin Peters was down to his knee injury in the end. I think he was very keen to come, but the injury put the block on it.”
Meanwhile, Killick admitted there had been no further interest in Charlie Austin.
The Dolphins board rejected a recent bid from Eastleigh for the striker, while Bashley were thought to be lining up Austin as a potential replacement for Silverlake Stadium-bound Dave Allen Killick added: “I’m surprised there hasn’t been any more interest in Charlie, but we’ve got some decent pre-season games lined up against higher opposition and he’ll get a chance to impress in those games.
“But at the moment I’m confident he will be with us at the start of next season. We play Bashley in pre-season, but I don’t think Steve Riley has seen him play and he didn’t even mention him when we spoke a while ago.
“But maybe he will take a look at him when we play in August.
“Eastleigh seem to have a funny approach where they are trying to get all these players from the lower leagues and put them in the reserves to see what happens.
“I just don’t think players want to drop everything to do that. They want more than that and want to go there as a first-team player. That was maybe the obstacle with Charlie because we got the impression that the interest wasn’t coming from the first-team manager.”
Lockey, who succeeds Jy Taylor in the hotseat, will be tasked with returning the club to the top flight. He will be working with the new committee at Ringwood following the amalgamation of Ringwood Town and the highly successful youth club, Ringwood Rangers.
But Hammer Steve Gilbert has left the club after signing for Alex Pike’s Gosport Borough.
Simkin said: “We very pleased to get Carl in for another year and we wish Steve well at Gosport.”
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