Tom Hickey has become the third new arrival in a hectic week of transfer dealings at Wealdstone.
Hickey signed on the dotted line this week after jumping ship from neighbours Hampton & Richmond Borough to join Stones’ Conference South adventure.
He joins fellow new arrivals Carl Martin and Tom Collins in committing to Stones’ new venture into Conference South football.
And boss Wealdstone Gordon Bartlett is confident he has landed another diamond in the rough.
The 21-year-old midfielder has been the scourge of the men of the Vale in the recent past, scoring against them in league and cup for the Beavers last term – two of his seven goals in 99 appearances for Hampton.
Little wonder then Bartlett is delighted to have Hickey on board, so excited in fact he drew comparison with Tom Pett, now sought after by several league clubs, who arrived as a similarly talented youngster two-and-a-half years ago.
He said: “You only have to look at Tom Pett and see what he has emerged into. He was a good player when he arrived and it was about giving him the licence to go and enjoy it and express himself a bit, but still within the discipline of a structure.
“The two Toms we have signed this week (Hickey and Collins) also fall into that category.
“Hickey is a young lad, only 21, with a lot of development still to come in his game.
“He had this knack of scoring great goals against us, so it was a case of if you can’t beat him sign him.”
Hickey comes with the reputation of being a fearless, not to say abrasive and combative player, the sort to have been tagged a ‘midfield enforcer.’
However, Bartlett’s hunch is there is a lot more to the game of a youngster who had trials at Brentford earlier in his career.
“I’d use the word competitive about Tom,” he said “He broke his nose last year, but came back strongly. I like his all-round game and he is a player who influences a match both in and out of possession.
“He’s not big but he’s strong He is energetic, a good passer of the ball and certainly puts his foot in. I would call him an all-round midfield player.
“He sat and did a defensive holding role at Hampton last year, but I think he could do a role further forward as well as you adapt to what the side needs.
“If you take Elliott Godfrey he was a goal-scoring midfielder when he came to us , but last season he adapted to a deeper role to allow others like Tom Pett and Glen Little to play ahead of him. Perhaps Tom can now push on in a similar way and show more of that side of his game.”
Landing Hickey is a reward for the patience and persistence of Bartlett and the rest of his management team, who put in a seven-day approach for Hickey in the wake of defeat to Hampton in late December.
Their target spurned their advances on that occasion in a bid to help the Beavers in a late promotion bid of their own, but the prospect of returning to the Conference South, where he had begun his career with Hampton in September 2011 was too good to resist and so prompted a change of heart.
“My timing when we made the first approach around New Year was not right,” added Bartlett. “It was right for us, but Hampton were on a great run.
“I spoke to Tom after that game and he thought Hampton would go on and do really well, but said if it did not work out we could talk again at the end of the season.
“He felt at the time we would be a sideways step, but in hindsight would love to have won the championship with us.
“So after the cup-final I went to him shook his hand and said ‘well played,’ but let him know we were still interested in signing him.”
The loss of Hickey, while not unexpected will be a blow to the Beavers’ management team of Paul Barry and Darren Powell who must now turn their attention to keeping hold of other prized assets such as Joe Turner and Luke Wanadio.
