Kyle can stay if Reds can cough up the cash

Richie Barker says there’s ‘absolutely no chance’ of landing another loan signing to bolster his squad, and that keeping new boy Kyle Bennett longer then a month will depend on the club’s finances.
Stevenage V Crawley 26-10-13 (Pic by Jon Rigby)Stevenage V Crawley 26-10-13 (Pic by Jon Rigby)
Stevenage V Crawley 26-10-13 (Pic by Jon Rigby)

Talented winger Bennett, 23, showed flashes of his quality in Saturday’s defeat away at Stevenage having joined from Doncaster only the day before.

He nearly scored within 30 seconds and set up a glorious chance for Dannie Bulman to level, and after the match expressed an interest in staying longer then his initial one-month deal.

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Predicting the exciting midfielder will only improve with games, Barker said: “He gets bums off seats, keeps people interested in the game and is creative, quick and skillful. “But he’s not played a great deal of football recently so he’s not quite at the right tempo, but that will improve the more games he plays.”

And insisting there was “absolutely no chance” of bringing anyone else in on a short-term basis, Barker said there was a chance Reds could take up the option to extend Bennett’s stay until January. “We’ll have to see how it goes, but the main factor will be finances. We didn’t have the money to sign him longer then a month at the time but if he does well and they (Doncaster) want him to stay we might be able to do something.”

On Sunday the FA Cup 1st Round draw handed Reds an away tie against Conference North Hednesford Town on Saturday November 9. The clubs are well known to each other from their Southern League days, and with the Staffordshire club riding high at the top of the table, Barker is wary of an upset.

“We would obviously have preferred a home tie like everyone else in the competition and they are doing extremely well so will go in full of confidence,” he said. “People will say there’s the potential for an upset, as there always is when a League club is away at a Non-League club so we’ll need to be mindful of that.”

Reds have already suffered a shock in the cup this season, though Barker insists the JP Trophy defeat to Newport County won’t influence his selection.

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