Craig Westcarr

Westcarr agrees Stevenage switch

Blue Square North champions Kettering Town have lost the battle to keep Craig Westcarr at the A-Line Arena after the striker agreed to sign for Stevenage Borough.

The Poppies claimed that The Blue Square Premier side had made an illegal approach for the striker earlier this week.

However, Stevenage felt they were well within their rights to offer Westcarr a deal as he had previously turned down a new deal at Kettering.

A statement on the Kettering Town website reads as follows:

"Craig phoned me a couple of days ago to let us know he had accepted an offer from Stevenage," Chairman Imraan Ladak said.

"Of course we already knew this following Stevenage's illegal approach last week but we wish Craig well for the rest of his career. Of course we will be entitled to compensation for Craig.

"For the record, I can confirm that the player had not rejected our offer when Stevenage were speaking to him and so both parties were in breach of FA rules.

"Unfortunately, we are at a huge disadvantage to other Conference Premier clubs.

"As of today, the conference are yet to confirm our budget for next season which as you can imagine is very frustrating.

"We cannot risk signing the big players we want and then find we do not have enough left in the budget to have a full squad.

"We have already lost Bridges because we could not match his salary expectations until our budget was confirmed, whilst we can't make an offer to either of the two proven Conference strikers that are currently available."