FOLLOWING the transfer of Adam Nowakowski to Darlington this week, the club have now announced the arrival of three new scouts to assist in their elevation to the Evo-Stik Premier League.

Promotion means Quakers will come up against a number of clubs they have not faced before, making each fixture a test of their ability to adequately prepare for matches.

With that in mind, and with the hope of unearthing potential new signings, manager Martin Gray has taken the club’s total of scouts to four with the well-respected Harry Dunn retaining his role.

“We’ve employed a few scouts to increase our scouting system. We’ll have four on the road every week now,” said Gray, who preferred to keep the scouts’ identities’ under wraps.

“I’ve always had Harry Dunn, who had been great and has pulled everything together. We’ve now got four people covering the North-West and North-East on a weekly basis to create a bigger knowledge of players.

“They’ll be looking at upcoming opposition, looking for possible new players that hopefully other teams aren’t aware of.

“We’ve slowly built towards this, but we’re at the stage now that if we’re going to compete with the teams in the league above then we need a better knowledge of players.”

Gray is grateful that the club’s directors have given him approval to recruit the scouts, saying: “It’s great to have that support from the club.

“It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but I’ve been very conscious that funds need to be looked after.

“The club have seen how I’ve done things, that I’ve tried to do things slowly and sensibly, so this is an extra tier we’ve created for the football club.”

Nowakowski has joined from Harrogate Town, becoming Quakers’ second signing since the end of the season following the arrival of winger Rob Youhill, who joined from Harrogate Railway.

The only exit from the senior squad has been Nelson Mota, the French winger being released after playing a bit-part role having joined midway through the season from Ramsbottom United.