SUMMER transfer target Joe Rothwell was signed by Mossley sooner than envisaged.
The Lilywhites made a move for 22-year-old Prestwich Heys player and Ollie Broe on dual forms from Farsley Celtic following injuries to regular full backs Ben Richardson and Freddie Sass.
Manager David Fish explained: “We had a couple of players, including Joe, on the radar for next season.
“Due to injuries, we had a conversation with Joe and managed to sign him. It gives him eight or nine games this season to get to know us.”
Rothwell, who came through the academy system at Bury, has had a wealth of non-league experience since being released aged 16.
He joined New Mills for whom he played 64 times and being named the club’s young player of the year in 2017-18.
Bolton-based Rothwell then signed for Northern Premier League, west division side Colne before joining Prestwich Heys on loan in 2018-19.
He made the loan a permanent switch the following season and played 65 times for Prestwich Heys, winning young player of the season twice and last season helping them get promoted to the North West Counties, premier division.
Broe, 20, meanwhile, was an academy player at Liverpool between the ages of five and 14 and in the academy at Wigan Athletic where he also did a two-year scholarship.
Fish, who had 10 players injured following the win at Kendal Town where Jordan Butterworth, Will Hartshorne and Mason Fawns joined the casualty list, was making moves to strengthen his squad before transfer deadline on Thursday, March 24.
As the Correspondent went to print, he had put in seven days’ notice to approach two players who had been recommended, again with an eye to next season.
Fish has signed Mossley Juniors’ Under-17 players Sam Muskett and Sam Taylor as back up.
Of the injured players Southport-bound Declan Evans (knee), Hartshorne (hamstring) and Dale Latham (double hernia) are out for the remainder of the season alongside long-term absentee David Kuba Kuba.
Butterworth, Fawns, Sass, Richardson, Connor Morris and Bailey Marsden are less serious.
Mossley’s promotion hopes have gone – though not mathematically – but Fish has not written off the remaining matches.
He said: “While we have an eye on next season, we want to finish this one with momentum behind us.
“I am planning to keep most of the squad together. It is a young one and will have learned a lot from this season.”