Its been a busy week for Darlaston Town’s squad off the pitch as manager Dean Gill has moved quickly to ensure two of the club’s talented youngsters commit to the club, extend loans until January and bring in two new players squad.

Darlaston Town in recent years have always looked to nurture young talent and lay a foundation for the future, but when you commit to this kind of policy you always run the risk of other clubs making players offers, they cannot refuse, therefore the club has to protect their investment by putting some players on contracts.

Last season James Rowland signed up for two years, this has now been extended further when on Monday Rowlo committed to another 12 months extending his stay until April 2026 and the club have a further 12 months option after that.

Joining him is Harry Chesterton, Harry signed up to 18 months, committing him to Darlaston Town until the end of the 2025/26 season and the club have an option for another 12 months. Since joining Darlaston earlier this year on loan from Solihull Moors where he was a contracted player, Harry has improved significantly and become a vital member of not only the squad but the defensive line, he is adapt at both defending as well as attacking and is always willing to positively get forward at every opportunity.

We have had two first team squad members on loan from Solihull Moors for the past 28 days, Both Tyler Bruck and Joel Shambook’s initial loans have expired, but we are delighted to announce both Tyler and Joel will remain with Darlaston Town until at least early January after their loans were extended.

It doesn’t stop there, also this week manager Dean Gill has also added another two players to his squad permanently. Both players are well known to Darlaston supporters as they have both played for the club in recent seasons, please welcome Mitch Botfield and Kieran Cook. Two players who have played the majority of their careers higher up the non-league ladder and their experience will prove invaluable to the squad over the coming season

Mitch has signed from Walsall Wood, he has played previously for the club at step 5 and 6, but his stay was never permanent> mitch brings a wealth of experience to the club having played at steps 3 and 4 for the majority of his career at clubs such as Alvechurch, Chasetown, Boldmere St. Michaels and he can play in several positions, so Mitch will prove a more than useful addition to the squad.

What can we say about Kieran Cook, after spending all his youth football years playing under Dean at Wednesfield Kieran moved onto Alvechurch, National League South side Leamington, Rushall Olympic, Coalville and at the beginning of this season Bromsgrove Sporting. He spent the last eight games of last season at Darlaston helping us earn promotion into the NPL, a fully committed player who is only interested in winning and scoring goals.

After a hard week’s graft and plenty of talking manager Dean Gill was delighted and said “We have moved to protect as best as we can, the club, the players and ultimately the team, to this end we had a busy period this week done the following and I am delighted that James Rowland has extended his contract until 2026. He has scored 30 goals from midfield the last 18 months, he was pivotal in our success last season and has started this season looking better than ever, scoring 7 goals already - at 21 James’ signing is incredible business for Darlaston Town.

We have also agreed a contract with Harry Chesterton who signed on loan from Solihull Moors in January 2024, he joined us permanently in August 2024 when his contract was not renewed at Moors, Harry has grown and grown into a bedrock of our team, he’s an absolute pleasure to manage and improving every day still - at 19 Harry has a great future in the game.

The two loan players from Solihull Moors who have been great since they came we have extended their stay until early January. Tyler is a great character who fits in with our values perfectly. Meanwhile Joel is a class act and we’re extremely happy to extend his loan from Solihull Moors until the new year.

We have also brought in two very experienced players at this level and higher. Neither are strangers to us firstly Mitch Botfield he joins permanently from Walsall Wood, I tried to sign him in the summer but unfortunately lost out so we moved quickly to sign him once he became available.

Also we have managed to entice Kieran Cook from Bromsgrove Sporting, Cookie has played over a thousand games for me over the years as a man and boy, he’s a huge asset to any team and I’m pleased to have him back permanently".