Newark Town manager Luke Parsons on signing midfielder Will Norcross from fellow United Counties League Premier Division North club Melton
Newark Town manager Luke Parsons believes his latest signing is exactly what they need for their play-off bid.
Will Norcross has joined the Blues from fellow United Counties League Premier Division North club Melton, having won the title last season with Sherwood Colliery.
The midfielder made his debut in a 1-1 draw at new league leaders Bourne on Saturday, having rejected offers elsewhere.
He adds a different dimension to a Newark team who are competing for back-to-back promotions.
“Will should be playing higher,” said Parsons.
“He’s a real quality technician, one of the best technical players I’ve seen.
“He gives us that something we’ve kind of missed all season, that player who can drive at the defence and unlock the defence with a through ball.
“A lot of teams were after him.
“I think the fact we play on a 3G and we’ve got a good team spirit helped.
“Our style of play probably tipped it over the line because he was offered a lot more money to play elsewhere but ultimately he decided on joining us.
“He’s definitely the player we’ve been missing.
“A lot of it has been reliant on Louis Czerwak opening it up, so now we’ve got a couple of players who can unlock teams.
“He’s a match-winner. We haven’t got many players who can win you a game out of nothing but I think he’s the type of player who realistically we needed to continue our charge to get in the play-offs.”
Newark conceded an early goal at Bourne, gifting the hosts a free header, but levelled in the second half when Czerwak finished a goalmouth scramble.
They dropped a place to fifth but it was a decent result for the Blues.
“It was a good, hard-earned point away to the top-of-the-league,” said Parsons.
“Performance-wise, I thought we were the better team.
“We didn’t do enough to win but we played really well, especially away from home, and we improved in the second half.
“If we put that application in for the rest of our away games, I’m sure we’ll come away with three points, not one.
“For our standards, we conceded a poor goal but it was pleasing to see we’ve got that attacking threat to get back into the game.”
Newark host bottom side Kimberley Miners Welfare at the YMCA this Saturday (3pm).
They’re taking nothing for granted having come unstuck around this time last year when they hosted struggling Rainworth in Division 1.
Parsons hopes his side have learned from the experience.
He said: “Rainworth were rock-bottom but they’d been picking up a few points.
“I think we were second or third at the time and everyone thought this is nailed-on three points but we struggled to a 1-1 draw and didn’t deserve to win the game.
“It’s the same with Kimberley. They’ve been picking up points, they won last week, they’ve not really been losing games and if they have, it’s been by one goal.
“Hopefully we’ve learnt from last season that these aren’t games where you just turn up and win, you still have to be at full throttle.
“We have to put the same performance in that we did against Bourne and that’ll probably be enough to win but anything less than that and we’ll be dropping points.
“If we’ve got aspirations of making the play-offs, you have to win your home games.”
There’s bad news for Newark on the injury front with striker Lucus Cotterill ruled out for the rest of the season.
He’s broken the same bone in his foot - the fifth metatarsal - that sidelined him earlier this season.
“He’s out for the season,” said Parsons. “He’s going to require surgery.
“How quickly he’ll even get in for that, I don’t know, but he’s out till next season, which is a massive blow for us. I’m gutted for the lad.
“It can happen, that you break it and rebreak it, but was it fully healed? That’s the question we’ve got to ask ourselves.
“We’re a bit short in the strikeforce at the minute because Lucus is out, Lewis Chambers has still got kidney stones, and Ryan Smith’s been struggling with tendonitis in his Achilles.
“We only had Ryan Rushen on Saturday but he’s unavailable next week.”
Parsons will resist the temptation to sign anyone else, however.
He added: “Our squad is very good at accepting people in but, me personally, I don’t think we’ll be bringing anyone else in for a while.
“We don’t want to be that team that panics after one game and has to bring players in because we’ve got too many injuries.
“We’ve got a squad, so let’s use it.”