Maidstone United v Guiseley: We will get more new faces, says Cox

Cox, yet to taste victory in his time at Nethermoor heading into his seventh National League match in charge today at Maidstone United, signed three players ahead of the narrow midweek loss to Macclesfield.

Winger Andy Howarth, Oxford City forward Mike Fondop and young Peterborough United left-back Lewis Freestone all arrived to boost Cox’s options, with Fondop making his mark with a goal on his debut.

With several players sidelined for long spells, Cox is likely to continue to realign his squad in the weeks ahead, with the possibility of some leaving as he attempts to find a winning formula following a tough start to the season for third-from-bottom Guiseley.

He said: “I have constantly been on the phone to a lot of football clubs, representatives and players.

“We have done a bit of business and there will be more business.

“It’s not that we are poor all of a sudden. Going into the Maidenhead game, we had just 16 players. I have not spoken about it because sometimes it can be misconstrued.

“We have eight or nine players who are out at the minute and we can’t afford to carry a squad like that with the important period coming up.

“It is always about balancing the books too and that will ultimately happen.

“Players shouldn’t really frown upon the squad growing and good players coming in. If you are a winner, you take competition in a good way.

“In the next seven to ten days, there will be more new faces coming in.”

On the impact made by Fondop, who netted on his debut against Macclesfield and showed promise, Cox said: “Mike is the modern-day footballer.

“The big thing about Mike was that he had not played a lot of football building into coming here and I think his previous game was playing behind-closed-doors game for us.

“It was a gamble putting him in, but, as people saw, for 60 or 70 minutes, he lit the game up and showed little glimpses of what he can do.

“He will improve and that is the main thing with Mike. He took his goal well, but was suffering from a bit of fatigue after 70 minutes.

“He was deserved man of the match and he brings presence and power and pace to our front-line.”