Highly-rated 'keeper leaves Wrens

HIGHLY rated Rainworth MW goalkeeper Joe McCormack has been lured to Evo-Stik NPL Division One South rivals Leek Town.

But Wrens manager Kevin Gee has moved swiftly to secure the services of a replacement keeper in advance of their Boxing Day local derby at Carlton Town.

The identity of the new keeper cannot be revealed until formalities are complete, but his current club have agreed to waive the need for a seven-day notice of approach, the new man trained with the Wrens last night (Wednesday) and Gee admits he is excited at the prospect of seeing his new man between the posts.

On McCormack’s departure, Gee confirmed: “I had a long chat with Joe last night, in fact he changed his mind three times, but in the end I just thought the financial package offered by Leek over the remaining 20 weeks was too big a carrot for him to turn down.

“In the end I’ve lost another promising talent due to money, but we just have to accept that this will probably happen all season.

“I believe Joe I has huge potential and thought if he developed he could go on to bigger and better things, and I guess only time will tell if this proves to be a good move from a footballing perspective. But I wish him all the best and of course having played Leek twice already it will have no impact on us.”

Gee added: “Although these constant changes don’t always help, especially when it seems to be one a week, I’m quite enjoying the wheeling and dealing that you have to do when working on a one in one out basis, and I genuinely believe that you only get out what you put in.

“When the Glapwell situation finished I spent nearly four months watching three games a week and updating my database so that I had enough resources to tap into when the next opportunity came along, and thankfully we are seeing the rewards of those efforts.”

Meanwhile, Gee has also cancelled the registration of striker Sean Cann to allow him to move immediately to league leaders Grantham Town.