Gladiators Confirm Nightingale Capture

Matlock Town update

On trial striker Tyeisse Nightingale signed for Matlock Town at the weekend and now Gladiators boss Mark Atkins feels he has competition throughout his squad.

Nottingham based Nightingale, who was with Hucknall Town last season and has also had spells with both Alfreton Town and Eastwood Town, contacted Atkins after originally taking time to mull over the offer from Matlock.

"After the Alfreton game I'd seen enough to want to offer Tyeisse a deal. He contacted me on Friday and said he'd love to sign for us so he's a very good addition to the squad. He's a goalscorer so we now have the four forwards we wanted. We've got good competition throughout the squad."

Nightingale, known as TJ, scored three times in Matlock's pre season campaign and has already won over the hearts of the Matlock supporters. He opened the scoring in the 3-2 win against a Derby X1 before going off with a foot injury. After the Alfreton game which saw the Gladiators lose to a late Chris Senior goal, Nightingale scored twice in the 5-0 thrashing of Belper Town on Saturday.

Now Atkins has to decide who his front two are for Saturday's league opener at Ashton United. Ian Holmes will be back from holiday and Nathan Joynes has recovered from his hamstring strain. Lee Whittington has also impressed with four goals in the warm up matches.

Atkins has also moved to put goalkeeper Jon Kennedy on contract. Signed from Worksop in the summer, Kennedy has turned in a string of excellent performances.

"Jon's signed a one year contract and it's something we felt we had to do following his excellent performances in the pre season matches. He's too good a keeper to lose. We were delighted when he signed for us and we're even more delighted he's signed a contract. Jon also was keen to sign a contract, he's enjoying himself here and all in all it's a good deal for everyone."

The nap hand at Belper should do much to bolster confidence ahead of what Atkins expects to be a tough campaign.

"Take away the first fifteen minutes at Belper when it was fast and furious and our play was a bit hurried, we were by far the better side. We looked a good outfit going forward and comfortable at the back. It was nice to take our chances. I've been very pleased with us in pre season, we've got the lads as fit as we possibly could especially with factors such as holidays. We've got a better squad than this time last season. pre season games don't count for anything though, you win nothing in pre season. The new lads have gelled together well but it's Saturday that's important. we've got a very tough start at Ashton who are always very good starters to a season. Chasetown at home on the following Wednesday will be a difficult game for us. In fact the league seems to get tougher each season so we've needed to strengthen our squad to get where we want to be. I've impressed on the players that they need to be bang on every game this season."

Atkins should have virtually a full squad to select a starting eleven from, with the exception of Kris Bowler who misses the opening two matches following his red card at Buxton in the final game of last season.

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