Worksop: Stewart signs on and Gathercole is staying for now as Tigers hold firm

Jon Stewart has agreed a deal to stay at Worksop Town

The goalkeeper played a big part in the Tigers success in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier Division last season.

But, following, Worksop’s drop down to the Northern Counties East League in the summer, Stewart moved on to Conference Premier side Alfreton Town.

However, Tigers fans were both surprised and delighted to see the popular stopper back between the Worksop sticks for last weekend’s FA Vase win at Long Eaton.

And he is likely to remain in place for tomorrow’s (Saturday) league derby with Worksop’s landlords Parramore at Sandy Lane.

“It’s important to have a good spine to your team and Jon certainly provides a strong part of that,” said Tigers boss Mark Shaw.

“We’ve done a deal to keep him and it’s great news for us that a player of Jon’s quality wants to play for us.”

And for the time being, Shaw has good competition for the goalkeeping slot with Ben Gathercole’s proposed move to league rivals Shaw Lane Aquaforce on hold for the moment.

“I think Shaw Lane want us to do them a favour and almost let them have Ben but we’re not doing that,” continued Shaw.”

“They complain about paperwork but we abide by the FA’s rules and we’re not going to just give one of our best players to a team that is, at the end of the day, one of our rivals.”

“Things may happen again soon but for now he remains our player.”