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Team news for Stalybridge Celtic friendly

FC United will continue trying out new players against Conference North side Stalybridge Celtic on Saturday and assistant manager Roy Soule says all the players have around two weeks left to prove themselves before he helps Karl Marginson decide the squad for the season ahead.

In the last couple of weeks, United have seen a number of new trialists including Jordan Hadfield, Karl Munroe, Richard Battersby, Matthew Tierney and Grzegorz Mania whilst there has also been a return to the club by Steve Torpey and most recently, Tunji Moses.

Hadfield is a 22-year-old central midfielder who has just been released by Conference Premier side Kettering Town. He has previously spent four years with Macclesfield and the Silkmen’s former manager Paul Ince took him on loan to Milton Keynes Dons for the 2007/08 season. Hadfield is a Salfordian and since being released by Kettering he’s returned to the north of England, where he’s had a number of trials this summer.

Munroe is another former Macclesfield player having made more than 100 appearances for the club between 2000-2004. The 30-year-old defender, who is happy at centre or right-back, also has a two year spell and 80+ appearances for Altrincham under his belt. Soule says: "I’ve known Karl for a long time. He’s been out of the game for a while, so we’ll have to see if he can get his sharpness back but he’s a very capable lad."??

"Richard Battersby has been around the non-league,"?? says Soule and he’s not wrong. The 31-year-old right-back, who’s also comfortable in midfield, has most recently been plying his trade with Saturday’s opponents. He’s also played for Altrincham, Northwich Victoria, Radcliffe Borough and Salford City.

Tierney is a 17-year-old attacking midfielder who has recently been released by Manchester City. The youngster made his debut last Saturday against Telford and unfortunately got injured but Soule says: "He’s got a lot of potential. We’ll get him back fit soon and we’ll see how he goes."??

Mania is a 22-year-old striker who has been playing semi-professionally in Division Two of his native Poland with Czarni Żagań. Soule says: "He’s a big centre-forward and he’s looking for a career over here. His agent got in touch with us and we said we’d take a look at him. If a player fits into our plans and they are good enough, they’ll play."??

Soule also explained the situation with Torpey and Moses. He said: "Stevie has made himself available to us and he’s been training hard. He needs to get himself fit and to get himself back up to the levels he knows he’s capable of. If we didn’t feel there was a chance of a player signing for us then we wouldn’t be wasting our time giving them games, so we’ll carry on talking to him and see where we go from here.

"Tunji is in a similar situation. He’s made himself available again and wants to come back so now he’s got to show us that he’s got the dedication and he’s willing to work hard."??



First Posted ~ 10:48 Sat 31 Jul 2010
News ID ~ 2992
Last Updated ~ 01:52 Tue 16 Feb 2021