Wrexham manager Graham Barrow is confident of adding further January reinforcements to his ranks by the end of the week.
Barrow was delighted to bolster his attacking options with the capture of striker Jason Oswell on Friday night, international clearance not coming through in time to see him available for the visit of Dover Athletic on Saturday.
Adding a “natural goalscorer” to his ranks was the priority for Barrow in the January transfer window, but the manager insisted he was still not done yet.
Wrexham went down to successive defeats for the first time this season on Saturday as they following their New Year’s Day defeat at Salford with a 1-0 loss at home to a resurgent Dover, Anthony Jeffrey’s 88 minute wonder striker separating the sides.
When asked what positives he could take from the game, Barrow also revealed his further recruitment plans.
“I was pleased with (Ben) Tollitt,” said Barrow after the defeat. “I thought we didn’t get enough of the ball to him.
“He is a brave lad, he keeps having the ball and keeps running at people and that should come to something.
“I was really pleased with him, I think one or two others had an off day, but I think it still smacks in the face that we have to do something up front.
“At the end of the day there was still a lot of things and crosses going across the six-yard box, probably more second half than first.
“I thought first half we had better situations to create chances and gets shot on goal, second half was more stuff going across the goal and not enough people in there.”
On Oswell, Barrow continued: “He is a goal scorer, when I’ve seen him play most of his goals have been where the ball was today (in the) second half (in the six-yard box).
“He is a good athlete, he holds the ball up well and runs the channels and is almost a younger version of Stuart Beavon, but I still think in an ideal world we need something else as well.
“We get young (Rekeil) Pyke back (from injury) on Monday, and it will be nice when we are searching on the bench. No disrespect to anyone who was on the bench, but when you are searching for that elusive goal that we can do what Salford and Solihull were doing last week, bringing strong attacking players on the pitch. I don’t think anybody disagrees with that, even a blind man could tell you that is what we needed to do.”
Oswell became Wrexham’s second permanent addition of the New Year, signing on an 18-month deal for an undisclosed fee from League Two outfit Morecambe.
Barrow also tied down Bobby Grant on a permanent deal until the end of the season on Wednesday, while he added he was confident of securing Brad Walker, whose loan from Crewe Alexandra ended following Saturday’s loss, until the end of the season.
And the manager also added he was keen to add another forward and centre-half after revealing Manny Smith had been in for surgery on Saturday.
The manager added: “I just want a certain type of striker. I have got one in mind, I have spoken to the club a lot but in this day and age it takes a long time to get things over the line, it only used to be one phone call now it is everything.
“But we will get there, if we don’t get it for Tuesday then, I am not being disrespectful to the FA Trophy but it is not top of our list, so we have got time. We need to use that time, both in the dressing room, on the pitch and recruiting.
“I don’t think we will get Brad done for Tuesday (a rearranged National League game at Bromley), but I am really hopeful having spoken to the lad.
“While he has been with us people have rung me about him, there is a lot of interest from clubs in the higher leagues, but hopefully his heart is on coming back and helping us do what we want to do.
“I am a bit concerned about centre-back as well, Manny has had an operation today so we don’t know yet what the outcome is, but there is only Jake (Lawlor) and the skipper (Shaun Pearson) there.
Read More
The latest on Wrexham AFC
“That concerns me, I just want the ability to do what we did at Salford (switch to a back three).
“We need to attack the situation now, and I want the option to be able to play with two strikers, to play with three centre-halves, hopefully by the end of the week I might have all them options open to me.”
