Micky pleased to have added experience to his back line
Town manager Micky Mellon is pleased to have added experienced Zak Whitbread to his squad ahead of the trip to Scunthorpe United.Whitbread, who was with Derby County last term, has been training with Town all week and he and the club came to a deal today. He was a free agent so Town have been able to sign him on a short term deal until the start of January.
The news was confirmed this afternoon and the Gaffer is delighted to have Zak on board;”We had a number of options but when you consider the quality Zak has we are delighted he’s chosen to come here.
“He came in at the start of the week and has enjoyed it, enjoyed the environment and knows what we want to do here.
“He’s seen the standard of his team mates and like us he believes he can come in and improve the group.
“We’ve been on the front foot with this as we’d known about Zak for a while so have been able to act quickly and get it over the line.”
Having played most his career in the Championship and Premiership Zak brings a host of leadership qualities to the Town squad;”We are delighted to have finally got that character and leadership that we are looking for into the squad.
“It’s not always easy in a loan window but we’ve worked hard and pulled in our contacts and believe we have got the right guy into the team.
“He’s not 100% match fit yet but he’s not too far off, it will be same sort of situation with Ian Black where it will take a week or so and he’ll be fine to be involved from the start.
“He’s come in here in decent nick and he won’t be far away from performing in the first team right away.
“He is an exceptional good player, a good guy, a leader, an organiser and it is great that he’s brought that quality in for us.”
With the addition of Ian Black and now Zak it brings more leaders into the dressing room. Out on the training pitch it also increased the quality and that can only benefit everyone;”He has very high standards and has been at some very good clubs.
“That means he will expect everyone to come up and meet his standards as well which has always been the way here.
“We are enjoying working with him and the qualities that he brings to training and we know that we have ourselves a very good player.”
Zak has been handed the squad number 4 and will travel with the squad for tomorrow’s game at Scunthorpe. Micky is happy with the centre back pairing of Dom Smith and Nat Knight-Percival but with Zak on board it gives him more options;”It helps him to integrate in with his teammates and that is always important.
“He’s not very far away from being able to start a game, we just have to give him at least a week’s training under his belt.
“He’ll be involved at Scunthorpe in some way and his ready to be involved if called upon.
“We are delighted with the performances from Dom and Natty from last week so we will probably carry on with them.”