Hawks edging closer to signing duo ahead of Welling United National League South opener

Manager Paul Doswell revealed deals for the duo are '95 per cent' complete and hopes to unveil the pair as early as tomorrow.

The Hawks boss says injuries in the latter stages of pre-season to Jamie Collins (hamstring), Sam Magri (calf) and Paul Rooney have highlighted insufficient squad depth.

But Doswell believes the potential two new recruits will provide the required competition and depth to cover his squad over the season ahead.

He said: ‘I’m in conversations today and we’re hoping to get a couple of players coming into the squad.

‘The squad, we felt, wasn’t quite deep enough. As soon as we picked up those three injuries the squad started to look very thin.

‘They’re almost certainly done (double deal), they’re 95 per cent there.

‘Both will be in the squad (new signings available for Welling), we’re thin on the ground at the moment, so both will come straight into the 16.

‘I think you get Jamie Collins, Sam Magri and Paul Rooney out at the same time and it makes you realise you could be short.

‘We’ve got everything right so far and what we didn’t want to do is leave ourselves short. We played McCarthy (Jake) and Greener (Michael Green) at centre-half on Saturday and it wasn’t right.

‘Saturday opened our eyes up to a few things and that’s what we’re trying to deal with this week.’

Hawks completed their six-game pre-season friendly programme with a 2-1 home defeat to Southern League side AFC Totton on Saturday.

But Doswell was not bothered in the slightest by the loss ahead of Saturday's season opener against Welling United at Westleigh Park.

And the Hawks boss remains hopeful both Rooney and Magri could be fit in time for the season curtain-raiser.

Doswell said: ‘We weren’t great (against AFC Totton), but am I bothered? I got over it in about five seconds, to be honest, it wasn’t something which bothered us at all.

‘I look at the Bristol Rovers game, the Gosport game - even the Bognor game when we were 2-1 up with five minutes to go - we’ve had a good pre-season for me.

‘More importantly, the players got through it in the main. Rooney (Paul) trained today which was really good news.

‘He’s (Sam Magri) is going to do a light session tomorrow, if he gets through that we can progress him into Thursday, if he gets through Thursday he’s got every chance of having a chance on Saturday.’