New Signing imminent - Sam Slocombe & Adam Smith

www.bristolrovers.co.uk/news/2017/july/slocombeandsmithsign/

It’s been well documented, in the local media, that the club seemed likely to begin their pre- season programme without an experienced shot stopper…how wrong they were!
Sam told bristolrovers.co.uk ; “It's good to be here and to get everything signed.
"It's another good signing today with the arrival of Adam, so that will hopefully lead to good competition and a good goalkeepers union at the Club.
“I have always thought that good competition brings out the best in you and pushes you that little bit harder.”
Meanwhile Adam said; “The deal has come about pretty quickly really and once the Manager spoke to me it was an obvious choice for me to make.
“It's a great Club and Darrell has said great things about it and the squad, so it ticks all the boxes really.”
Darrell had this to say about his two new signings; “I am delighted to be signing two excellent goalkeepers who will provide us with competition for the number one spot next season.
“Both have experience of playing at this level and they have different attributes which means they will complement each other.
“I’m sure that our supporters will welcome the news that we have signed these two players today and I’m certain that they will give them their backing throughout the season.”
Former Scunthorpe United, Oxford United and Blackpool goalkeeper Sam Slocombe has appeared in 172 league games for his previous three clubs, while ex Northampton Town keeper Adam Smith has appeared in 86 league matches for Northampton Town.
29 year old Slocombe joined Scunthorpe United from non league Bottesford Town in August 2008 and made his first team debut for them in a League Cup tie against Port Vale in September 2009. His league debut came against his most recent employers, Blackpool, on 7th November that year.
After appearing in 115 league games for Scunthorpe, he signed for Oxford United in June 2015 and went on to appear in 23 league games during his one season at The Kassam Stadium
. One year ago he joined newly relegated Blackpool and appeared in 34 league games for them as they clinched a League Two play off spot and also appeared in the play off semi finals against Luton and the final at Wembley, where they beat Exeter City 2-1.
He has played against Rovers on four occasions and kept clean sheets at The Mem for both Scunthorpe United and Oxford United.
Adam Smith, who will be 25 in November, was born in Sunderland and began his career as a youngster with Middlesbrough. He joined Leicester City in 2010 and in five years at the club he spent loan spells at Chesterfield, Lincoln City, Nuneaton Town, Stevenage, Cambridge United and Mansfield Town.
In the summer of 2015 he joined Northampton Town and was an ever present in the side that clinched the League two title in 2015/16. At the end of that campaign he was selected in the PFA League Two Team of the Year.
Last season he appeared in 40 league games for The Cobblers as they finished 16th in League One.
He has played against Rovers on four occasions for Northampton and kept a clean sheet at The Mem in our first game of the 2015/16 campaign. The Cobblers won 1-0 on that occasion, but Rovers ended the season in style and were one of three clubs to accompany Northampton into League One.
Interviews with both players will appear on our website later this afternoon.

Welcome aboard

How is that going to happen?  I really hope we are not going to be swapping goalkeepers too often and playing one if there is an aerial threat and the other if we need him to be able to "sweep up".  Mmmmmmm maybe it could work.

Really pleased with these signings though.

The way the EFL are talking I would not be surprised if we saw players allowed on for specific situations or special teams as they call it in American football !

It's a bit like buses really, you wait for what seems like hours . . . and two come along together. 

Nevertheless welcome to the club both of you, and I expect that Steve Mildenhall is particularly pleased.  UTG.

Would have been really happy with just Slocombe signing today but Smith as well is great. Two really good keepers both capable of being the number 1.

Few silly comments on Twitter about Smith and the Thailand stuff but that's all in the past now.

Until we land in Portugal then it'll be welcome abroad

Especially if he brings his "invisible hand"

Talk about manipulating stats to suit an argument; Howie played against us 3 times the following season and conceded once and that was a penalty! Personally thought Howie was a solid 7 out of 10 keeper that on occasions single handedly won us points that meant Halifax just about pipped us as the worst team in the league that year.

Pretty pleased with this business; I won't lie my first reaction when I saw we'd signed two keepers, was surely it would be a calculated risk to have signed one and relied on Mildy/one of the young triallists as cover. Then we could've spent the saved wages on another striker/winger to give us more options. However after remembering what a farce the GK situation over the last 3 years, I think it's a very prudent move by DC.

I think both fit the mould of what I've wanted in a keeper since it was obvious Mildy was past his best; decent number of league games behind him, yet young enough that he could potentially hold the shirt for years to come. Without getting ahead of ourselves, we could even make some money on Smith if he fulfills his potential.

I didn't massively get the love in with Lumley; yes he was fantastic, but he wasn't superman, he was just remarkably better than Puddy and Roos. He was a young keeper that had yet to go through a bad spell and until we'd seen how he'd recover from that we had no idea how gpod he really was.