Grimsby Town bosses focus on new frontman - but options wanted in all areas

A NEW striker may be top of Rob Scott and Paul Hurst’s wishlist – but the Mariners joint bosses insist they want competition in all areas of the field.

While their pursuit of Ross Hannah appears to have stalled for the time being, the management duo are continuing to work behind the scenes to bring another forward in.

That’s despite last week’s loan acquisition of Richard Brodie.

The bosses want a “different kind” of striker to the former York City frontman and team-mate Andy Cook, pictured right, but Hurst stressed it would be remiss not to keep a close eye on other positions in the squad.

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“In all honesty, we’re not waiting on the Ross Hannah deal – we’re pursuing other avenues,” he told the Telegraph.

“The pursuit of Ross isn’t over but it’s not a case of hanging on waiting to hear if it’s a definite yes or no from him.

“Bringing in Richard Brodie last week changed our situation slightly because we’re not in quite as much of a hurry.

“But at the same time, We still want a striker that is different to Andy and Brodes, so we’ll keep looking.

“At this moment in time, we’re purely looking at a striker but that’s not to say that we haven’t got our eye on other areas.

“We’re now down to three centre-halves for example, whereas before, we’ve always carried four for most of the time we’ve been at the club.

“If something goes awry there, we’re going to have to act pretty quickly.

“As things stand, we’ve got two full-backs with Aswad Thomas being suspended, so again that’s another area that we’ll keep an eye on, but, as a manager, you’re always looking,” he added.

“It changes almost game to game. You look at a match and you think, ‘maybe if we’d just had a bit more quality here or there’.

“You’re always trying to improve and we’ve done that with the loan players that we’ve brought in and that in turn has improved the competition in those areas of the squad.

“That’s what we’ll continue to strive to do – no-one’s allowed to become complacent.”

Hurst added that he has been delighted with the way Brodie, and fellow loanee Jamie Devitt have settled into the squad – saying it underlines why they want deals for any new faces tied up as quickly as possible.

“We’ve been really pleased with the way the new lads have settled in,” he said.

“The fact that Dev has been here before definitely helps.

“The other players have certainly taken note after he came on and showed what he could do on Saturday – we all saw what a great player he can be for us.

“With Brodes, I thought he did quite well on his debut and he showed what he will bring to us.

“Neither of them are shy which definitely helps. They both join in and get involved.

“Throughout January, clubs will be doing bits of business.

“From our perspective, if we can get as much done, as soon as possible, that gives us more opportunity to bed them into the squad and reap the benefits of 21 games together.”