Four trialists to travel with Cobblers to Brighton training camp

The Town squad head to the south coast on Monday morning, and joining the contracted players will be Sam Hoskins, Rod McDonalnd, Gozie Ugwu and Joel Purkiss.

All four played the first-half of the 1-0 win at Fernie Fields, Hoskins scoring the goal on 26 minutes, with central defender McDonald the only player involved to complete the 90 minutes.

They will all now get the chance to impress Cobblers manager Chris Wilder throughout this week, and are set to feature in Tuesday’s friendly at Worthing and Saturday’s at Burgess Hill.

“The trialists have come to us in the past couple of weeks, with a view to us having a real good look at them,” said Wilder.

“I said to the boys that it is okay them training with us, we need to look at them in match situations.

“The two young boys played at the top of the pitch in the first half and did well.

“Sam got a decent goal and looked a threat, and Rod played the full 90 minutes.

“They will now hopefully come down the road with us to Brighton, and we will take a longer look at them in the next couple of games.

“As I have said all along, we are a couple of bodies light in certain posititons, at the top of the pitch and at left centre-half, so they have done themselves no harm with their performances at Sileby, and more importantly their attitude.”

Of the four, Ugwu is the most experienced, having made 53 senior starts and 27 substitute appearances, scoring 20 goals.

A Reading youth product, the 22-year-old striker had loan spells at Ebbsfleet, Yeovil, Plymouth and Shrewsbury, before signing for Scottish outfit Dunfermline in the summer of 2014.

In his short spell north of the border, Ugwu scored seven goals in 18 appearances before he signed for Yeovil in January, scoring five times in league one in 22 games.

Hoskins, who is 22, also played for Yeovil last season, having signed for the Glovers from Southampton, where he was a trainee, in June, 2013.

He never played for Saints, but while there enjoyed loan spells at Preston, Rotherham and Stevenage.

In all, the front-runner has only made 18 starts in senior football, but he has came off the bench 43 times, and has scored four goals in his career to date.

McDonald has no League experience, having played non-League for Hereford United and Telford.

The 23-year-old stats are pretty good though, as the central defender has made 68 starts and eight substitute appearances, scoring seven times.

Finally, 24-year-old midfielder Purkiss plays non-League football for Sheffield FC. He has also played for Rushall, and has trained with league one side Walsall, but he failed to win himself a contract at the Bescot Stadium.