10:00am Thursday 19th August 2010
By Joe Whitbread
Harrow Borough boss David Howell hopes Rocky Baptiste can give the club a boost ahead of the new season.
Baptiste's future is finally set to be resolved this week after the striker was unsure whether or not to stay at Earlsmead.
The Reds face Maidstone United at home this Saturday and Howell is confident the 38-year-old will sign on the dotted line before the weekend.
"Rocky arrived late back to pre-season training this summer and he said he was looking to keep his options open," said Howell.
"But he came back to me a few weeks ago and said he wanted to stay. I would be happy to keep him on at the club after scoring 22 goals last season."
Securing Baptiste will be a huge boost to Boro who have already added several players to the squad including Troy Hewitt.
The 18-year-old scored 13 goals in 37 appearances for Ryman Division One North side Ilford last season and the youngster did enough to impress Howell during pre-season to earn a contract.
"Troy has scored four goals in four games for us so far, he is a natural goalscorer," he said.
"He has great movement, a good spring and good feet so I'm confident he'll do well."
Boro finished 14th in the league last season after drawing 14 games which prevented the club from pushing for a play-off spot.
But Howell believes the squad are stronger because of it and points to a number of factors that contributed towards the team’s performance last campaign.
"I'm expecting us to be better than last season," he said. "I think we did well for a while but I had some problems domestically which meant I missed parts of the season.
"We will learn from last year though because we have more experience and our players are better from it.
"At the beginning of last season we played six games in August and got nine points. This time we have four games and I want nine points."
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