Ben Garner has revealed Bristol Rovers are in the market for one more signing this summer after the Gas cruised to a 4-0 win at Bristol Manor Farm.
The Pirates kicked off their pre-season schedule on Saturday with a comfortable victory at The Creek.
Jonson Clarke-Harris opened the scoring early before impressive teenager Zain Walker netted a brace. Lucas Tomlinson completed the scoring in the second half.
Rovers fielded a different team in each half, and both XIs impressed with their creative play.
Garner is delighted with how his squad has come together and he had hinted Rovers’ business would conclude with seven signings this summer.
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson returned on loan from Derby County on Saturday morning, but Garner has revealed the Gas are keen to make another addition.
“We’d like one more,” Garner told Bristol Live. "I think we’d like one more to give us the balance we want within the squad and then it will be just assessing it through pre-season because we’re seeing how it clicks and we might want to change that and strengthen an area.
“We’re open minded throughout the rest of the window, but I think what we have done is given ourselves a really strong base to start from, and now it’s only subtle changes to the squad rather than an overhaul.
“There are one or two that we would look to move on and they’ve been made aware of that. We’re just waiting to see if that happens in this window.”
Youngsters Walker, Tomlinson and Tom Mehew caught the eye in their 45-minute cameos.
Walker turned brilliantly on the edge of the box and lashed into the bottom corner to open his account, and he followed it up with a cute dinked finish before half time.
Tomlinson also scored, crashing home from eight yards after the break, while Mehew was composed in the heart of midfield and picked a wonderful pass to tee up Walker’s second goal.
Garner is delighted with the efforts of his fledglings, and he insists they will get more opportunities to impress.
“We’ve had a lot of them training with us in this period,” the Rovers boss added.
“We’ve had a slightly bigger group and we’ve given them an opportunity to showcase themselves and what they can do.
“We want that here. We want a pathway for our young players and if there’s the opportunity to go in and prove it they’ve got to show they’re better than what we’ve got in the team.”
