Another one just signed

More much needed depth, let’s hope he’s a good one

He has looked confident and assured in pre season, like sass-davies he has worked with Sarll before.

Short term deal?

Think D.S. signed him purely because we need a second keeper for this month. D.S. got his eye on a quality loan signing end of August.

I think he'll start against Yeovil!

Good signing should make a massive difference to us.

In the game vs Scunny he made one really good save, however he is very slow on the ball and kicking not great. Sarll was continually shaking his head.

Sarll had previously said we would not be signing him.

This isn't a positive signing, he's not as good as Dixon. He's someone to cover until we 'hopefully' find someone else during August.

Hopefully the GK position doesn't cost us matches until we do find a longer term choice, may be one where we need to actually spend some money.

Another strange choice after the manager said categorically he wasn't signing him !

It's not a positive signing

Must needs signing

How long has he signed for?

Short term suggests that Sarll has someone else lined up.

It won't be more than 3 months. More likely till end of August The only way I see him staying is if someone takes Dixon but don't hold your breath.

So we stuck with Dixon for august, so we can kiss a clean sheet goodbye

so what if we score more than anyone else in a game. it would be hell if we were a team who after scoring just sat back in the hope of that. think we have seen far too much of that tactic fairly recently which hardly came off.

If the midfield do their job defensively then he should have less to deal with and logically therefore he should make fewer mistakes. The goalkeeper is the last line of defence not the only one.

Does smith signing mean we have missed out on this loanee we gave been waiting on for months

Short term so maybe the patent club is holding things up?

lots of loans from league clubs seem to start after the season gets underway. unless he starts games the only thing in for him is a pay cheque and is hardly helping him finding a full time club if we get a loanee keeper we are after. if not will we extend his contract or just using the lad which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There is so much fuss these days over the recruitment of players.
As we only have one senior team operating, similar to most clubs at our level, any player who is approached must be careful about signing for a team that may already be strong in his preferred position. Players want to play not warm benches, so may not relish the idea of being back up. It is verging on a nightmare for goalies.
Fancy going through a season waiting for an injury or loss of form before getting a chance to kick a ball in anger. I suppose you would get used to it but it must be frustrating when there are no other games available for non first choice players apart from going out on loan.
Must be really boring and difficult putting everything into training knowing full well your appearance chances are very slim.

I agree with you.

Kevin needs his Medication.

The pay packet might help them get over it though. Imagine havibg no pressure on you whatsoever but gettting 700 to 1500 a week .

a lot will depend on the player himself. there have been some keepers around with long careers but very few games played in there last few seasons in the game. anyone remember carlo nash who played the odd game for boro. in the last 7 years in the game he only made 10 appearances and all those in one season for a club. however he still picked up a pay cheque.

A lot of keepers at the top do exactly that, And rarely see the starting line up.

Yep I know but it would frustrate the hell out of me. The money obviously must be a big factor.

do a few days training or getting a proper job that might need an alarm clock. as they say nowadays, its a no brainer.

The big clubs even have three top keepers all on big wages two of which generally have no chance of playing apart from Micky mouse cup games. As a joke Man City players gave Carson a free ticket for a look around the eitihad stadium in the Xmas secret Santa draw. Talk abou taking the …… but then again look at his bank balance and medal cabinet.

Sarll, speaking after his side were beaten in their final pre-season game, admitted that Smith's impressive trial period with the club prompted him to change his mind and swoop for the experienced stopper.

"Absolutely right, something changed," he said.

"Being completely transparent, his performances have been excellent.

"There's just a hunger there with Adam - he definitely expressed to me his desire to be a Hartlepool player.

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Sarlls reasoning on signing Smith.

"When I said previously that it was me holding back on it, it was me.

"I think we all came to a very, very beneficial agreement between the club and Adam and I.

"It made it a no-brainer to get it done. We certainly didn't want to go to Yeovil with just one goalkeeper, especially with the extended bench.

"With all of these things, recruitment evolves and changes direction all the time based on what is going on out there in the market, what is available to us in the moment and what might be available to us in January or February.

"I think we acted in good faith. It was a really important thing to me that he was from the area again, so that we carried on building that North East connection.

"The easiest thing to do in these moments is to go and get a teenager from a London club - Palace or Fulham or something - and I didn't want to do that. I wanted it to be right.

"I thought Adam was probably best placed out of anyone to provide a solution to the obvious problem."