Morgan’s move ‘looks great’ on Puritans

This proved to be the last of Morgan Roberts' goals as he scored twice in a 3-1 win over Hereford before securing a move to Swindon Town. Picture by Julie Hawkins

Roberts was rewarded for a number of fine performances in a Puritans shirt with a move to the Sky Bet League Two side for an undisclosed fee on transfer deadline day last week.

Roberts scored 25 goals in 63 appearances for Banbury and was a key figure in their Southern League Premier Central title success last season.

He has now followed striker Chris Wreh, who signed for Southend United in the summer, in departing Banbury for a higher level.

And while Whing has lost one of his star men, he believes the move shows others what might be possible if they continue to perform well at the Banbury Plant Hire Community Stadium.

“I am more on the side of being absolutely delighted for Morgan,” the Puritans boss said.

“When I came into the club a couple of years ago, I became something of a salesperson and I was telling players what the plan was and where we wanted to take the club.

“We have seen Chris Wreh get a move to Southend and now Morgan has got a move into the Football League and it looks great on us as a football club that we are helping young players to progress their careers while still being successful at the same time.

“Obviously what we don’t want to do is lose all our players to the point where it affects us as a club and as a team.

“We have a strategy and recruitment process, which has been a different class in the last 18 months and we will continue that.

“As soon as we knew about the move, I just asked the question of the players at training: ‘who is going to be the next one?’

“That’s the aim of the lads individually and us as a club to see if we can help them progress higher up by being successful here.”

After completing the signing of Roberts, Swindon technical director Sandro Di Michele, said: “Morgan is a really interesting signing for us and is an extremely talented young player.

“He’s proved himself in the non-league environment and is definitely one for the future. He’s got an interesting profile and it’s one that fits the Swindon project.”