Uxbridge were last night (Tuesday) locked in negotiations to keep Chris Paterson on loan from Basingstoke until the end of the season.
Paterson first arrived at Honeycroft in early November as Reds manager Tony Choules bolstered his defence following the loss of star defender Rob Fitzgerald.
The deal was extended again in December for another month but is due to expire again, with Choules keen to hang onto the 23-year-old central defender.
Talks were being held last night in an attempt to thrash out a deal and Uxbridge were hopeful of reaching a positive outcome.
“We’ll sit down with Chris and Baskingstoke and try and extend it, possibly until the end of the season,” Choules said this week.
“We’re very happy with him and I know he’s happy here. This is the last loan deal we can do with him, so if we do extend it then it’ll be until the end of the season.
“What with Rob Fitzgerald being unavailable due to work commitments, it was imperative that we got someone in of real quality in. We’ll do everything we can to persuade him to stay, but the vibes I’ve got from him is that he wants to stay.”
Uxbridge’s home clash with Barton Rovers and the New Year’s Day trip to North Greenford were both postponed, but Choules says the extra rest will be a huge benefit to Reds striker Matt Woods.
“Matt Woods had a broken metatarsal, but he came back just before Boxing Day and then played against Marlow in the last game before the postponements,” he said.
“I guess, in a way, all of these games getting called off has come at the right time for him to have a breather, but there are about seven others that were just getting into the groove and have been halted.
“We got the festive games over with and we haven’t kicked a ball since. It’s only the rain at the moment, we’ve got the snow to come yet. There’s only so much you can do. We don’t want them to become bored with the training so we’ve just done enough to keep the cobwebs away.”
Play-off contenders Royston Town are the visitors to Honeycroft this weekend.
