Gosport Borough to make ‘at least’ two new signings following Southern Premier League defeat at Weston-super-Mare

He has been chasing a centre half for a number of weeks and has now added a new engine room addition to his wanted list.

The manager is close to signing a young midfielder on loan from an EFL club, and all new bodies will be welcome.

‘We are threadbare at the moment,’ said Gale after yesterday’s 3-0 Southern League Premier South defeat at Weston-super-Mare.

‘Andreas Robinson and Bradley Tarbuck could be available at some point this week, but the bench I had at Weston were all kids.’

Jake Wright, 18, Adam Biss, 19, and Dan Aitken, just 16 and a couple of months out of school, came off the bench at Woodspring Park.

‘They did fantastic, which is nice to know,’ said Gale. ‘It bodes well for the future. But for the immediate future, I need to bring at least two in.

‘Not necessarily experienced players, but they will add quality.’

Gale admitted Gosport ‘killed ourselves’ with their first half performance at Weston.

They conceded all three goals in the opening 35 minutes, with experienced ex-EFL regular Reuben Reid among the scorers.

Kieran Thomas had opened the scoring in only the eighth minute with a shot from outside the box.

‘It was a great strike from the lad but a soft goal to concede, all three goals were soft,’ reported Gale. ‘We should have stopped the shot.

‘It could have been 3-3, we missed three good chances. We were better in the second half but the damage had been done.

‘It’s disappointing, it’s a long way to go and we didn’t give ourselves a chance with our first-half performance.

‘I’m not using the injuries as an excuse, we just didn’t do the job we needed to do in the first half.’

Gale had made just one change to the starting XI that had beaten Merthyr 3-2 in the Southern League curtain-raiser the previous weekend.

Former Portsmouth Academy player Izzy Kaba was handed a first start in central midfield, with Kyal Williams injured.

Centre half Matt Briggs came off late on at Weston with a groin strain, with Biss slotting into the back four.