Fleet midfielder John Goddard is poised for a return to the first-team squad by Christmas and manager Kevin Watson is hoping the former Swindon Town man can help bring another dimension to his midfield.
Goddard, who scored Fleet’s first goal of the season, played in the first eight games before an injury sustained in the Aldershot game. He returned briefly against Woking but lasted only a half and later had to undergo ankle surgery.
The 26-year-old was warming up with the squad ahead of kick-off at Eastleigh on Saturday and will be pushing for a place very soon.
“He will be like a new signing for us,” Watson said. “He will be back and available within a week or two weeks which will be fantastic for us. He’s exactly the sort of player we could do with, as well as a ball-winning midfielder, and he’ll be great for us I’m sure.”
Watson has worked hard to bring in that type of midfielder but despite his best efforts, his targeting of a new recruit recently ended up down a blind alley.
“I’ve got good players – I need to add to it – so we’ll see if that becomes available to me,” said the Fleet boss. “We know where we need to identify. That is something we are looking at. I have tried the said type of player [a ball-winning midfielder]; unfortunately the said type of player turned us down.
“We’ve got good footballers here but sometimes you need that someone to just be in there, be a block, get in the way, make tackles and give it to your players that can play. I did try – the problem we have is we are down the bottom and it’s getting the right players who want to come to our club which is the difficult thing to get them to do. But we’re working with what we’ve got, the boys are improving. I tell them to play with a smile on their face, work hard and they’re certainly doing that.”
