Hebburn Town boss backs first summer signing to succeed as Whitby Town striker snapped up
Hebburn Town have made Whitby Town striker Jake Charles their first signing of the summer.
Hebburn Town manager Daniel Moore has backed new signing Jake Charles to fill the void left behind by the departure of top goalscorer Gary Martin.
The experienced striker played a leading role in the Hornets’ shock Northern Premier League title win last season - but he has now returned to the Northern League after agreeing to a second spell with Bishop Auckland. Moore has wasted little time in finding Martin’s successor as his leading frontman after securing the signing of Charles just months after making an initial attempt to land the former Whitby Town forward.
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The nine-times capped Wales Under-21 international officially became Hebburn’s first signing of the summer on Wednesday and Moore is aiming to get the most out of a player that he believes can become a regular goalscorer within his side.
He told The Gazette: “We did try and get Jake during the season last year. We enquired about bringing him in, but he was under contract at Whitby and weren’t in a position to pay a fee at the time so after that the plan was always to get him this year. We have spoken at length about what we want and how we feel he is a good fit for the way we play. He’s excited to come and play for us, he believes he can score goals for us and it’s a big plus that he’s been at that level. Gary Martin has moved on but I’ve said it before, we play to our strikers, we create opportunities and Jake will get plenty of those.
“We had this with Gary where he had to come in and replace Amar Purewal, who scored 50 goals over two seasons after not being a regular goalscorer with Hebburn. Gary hadn’t done well at Bishop Auckland in the season before we signed him and he finished top scorer with us. So we are aiming to be doing the same with Jake by putting him in a position to score goals - but we won’t put him under pressure, we just want him to play his game.”
Experience
Moore is making further progress with a number of other signings and is hoping to further boost his squad over the coming weeks as he prepares for a historic season that will see Hebburn compete in the National League North for the first time in their history. The addition of former Scarborough Athletic forward Charles is a sign of things to come according to the Hornets manager after he revealed he is aiming to add step two experience to his ranks before the new campaign gets underway in August.
He said: “It’s the one thing we looked at when the three lads (Arron Thompson, Olly Martin and Gary Martin) left the club. It was about replacing them with experience of the level and Jake has played at the level. The other signings we have coming in have played there too so we are doing that. He’s 30, a good age for a centre forward and the experience side can’t be sniffed at.”