Tim Sills is on his way…

Reports surfaced tonight that Torquay striker Tim Sills is about to sign for Stevenage Borough. Sills has said on his facebook profile that he is leaving the Gulls after nearly 3 seasons at Plainmoor to join the Blue Square Premier leaders. It’s a great coup for Boro, who are now looking serious title challengers to Oxford United. Graham Westley has identified where we needed strengthening and brought in a proven goalscorer at this level. He has experience in the football league and most importantly knows how to get out of this division.

Sills, as he says himself, is an old fashioned English forward. He’s strong in the air, as Cambridge fans know only too well and is a good finisher. He began his career in the non league with Camberley Town and Basingstoke before moving to Kingstonian. After a prolific season with the K’s, he earned a move to Aldershot Town and was instrumental in the side that nearly got promoted from the Conference at the first time of asking. Unfortunately for the Shots, they were beaten in the play-offs.

After impressing for Aldershot, a £50,000 move to Oxford United followed, but that didn’t quite work out and a handful of games later he moved briefly to Hereford before ending up down at Torquay. Sills was a legend at Plainmoor. He famously played and scored against Cambridge at Wembley in last season’s play-off final. He was also an important part of the team that got promoted to the football league and scored 33 goals in 98 appearances. A record of nearly 1 goal in every 3 appearances is not bad going.

Sills joins Stevenage with the club currently top of the Blue Square Premier. In my opinion, the signing of Sills is the final piece of the jigsaw. The squad looks incredibly strong all over the pitch now and has a good blend of both youth and experience. I think Sills will fit straight in at Broadhall Way. Our style of play suits his and with the amount of service he is likely to receive from the likes of Drury, Long and Cole then he should be in his element. While Griffin has come in and done ok, he hasn’t been prolific enough in front of goal. He has missed some crucial chances, which has cost us some vital points. Sills, like Griffin, is a proven goalscorer at this level and hopefully can give us that bit of quality up top.

However, it doesn’t look likely that Sills will make his debut at the weekend when Boro are penned in to play Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground. Yesterday, Wrexham said the game was about 50/50 and now it’s more likely to be called off as the weather continues to cause havok around the country. A pitch inspection is planned for tomorrow morning to decide whether the game has a chance of going ahead prior to Boro travelling up Friday night. I don’t think it’ll be on and with Sills unable to face Vauxhall in the Trophy due to not being registered at the time of the original fixture, then a home game against Kettering looks likely to be his debut.