CHRIS LAKEY King's Lynn have secured two more players for the new season after Scott Howie and Andrew Fisk put pen to paper on new deals.ss

CHRIS LAKEY

King's Lynn have secured two more players for the new season after Scott Howie and Andrew Fisk put pen to paper on new deals.

Both have signed contracts tying them to the Linnets for next season, leaving manager Keith Webb close to completing his jigsaw with more than three weeks to go before the big kick-off on August 18.

"We are getting close to the squad we want," said Webb yesterday. "A couple more players and we will be there or thereabouts. I suppose my priority is to bring in another defender and we are still working on that."

Howie's decision to commit himself to the Linnets match-by-match rather than as emergency back-up solves a dilemma for Webb, who lost first choice stopper Paul Crichton to League One side Brighton last week.

"With Scott's business commitments he was prepared to fill in when Paul wasn't available," added Webb. "He had to be flexible, but now we have sat down with him and we have come to an arrangement and he will be available for every game."

Howie joined the Linnets last April as cover for first choice Shaun Marshall and, at 35, has a wealth of league experience in his native Scotland as well as in England.

"He has all that experience, he's a good communicator with his back line and he has a presence, a calming influential presence," said Webb. "He knows the players and he enjoys being in their company and that is an added bonus."

Fisk is at the other end of his career - at the age of 19 he failed to earn himself a new contract at Norwich this summer and was hoping to find another league club.

"He has spent the summer trying to sort it out - and I don't blame him for that - but it's not happened," said Webb. "He spent time with us on loan last season and decided to get something sorted with us, and we will benefit."

Webb believes the former Canary can still realise his ambitions.

"It's all down to him," he said. "If he produces the goods he will get in the team and who knows what will happen from there - it happened with Adam Smith, who left us for Peterborough."