Boss Paul Jewell has confirmed that Town were eyeing Peterborough striker Tyrone Barnett prior to his £1 million-plus move from Crawley to London Road last month. The Blues were understood to be close to making an offer for the 26-year-old during the January transfer window.

Jewell says 6ft 3in tall Barnett was someone Town were monitoring: “He’s a good player. We watched him and looked at him.

“They’ve also got the lad Paul Taylor up front, who’s a good player, Lee Tomlin, George Boyd, Grant McCann, they're all good players. But we’ve got some good players as well and I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining game.”

Like Town midfielder Andy Drury, Barnett was playing non-league football until relatively recently, wearing the shirts of Rushall Olympic, Telford United, Willenhall Town and Hednesford Town, before breaking into the Football League with Macclesfield in 2010.

“I think the lad Tyrone Barnett is an example like Drury," Jewell says. "He’s just had a big move to Peterborough.

“There are plenty of players who haven’t come through academies and sometimes these players who come into the game later are hungry because they know what it’s like to get up and go on a milk round or have to work on a building site or know what it’s like not to have a job.

“Sometimes they make hungrier players and they develop a bit later. They think ‘I don’t really want to go back to work at a proper job, I quite like this football lark’.

“The game is full of players like that. The boy Paul Taylor at Peterborough as well, he has a little bit of baggage [having faced a drugs ban earlier in his career] but he’s a really good player.”

Photo: Action Images

Photo: Action Images

ian_marshall added 09:30 - Mar 17 Shame we didn't pull our finger out.
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gibbo added 09:38 - Mar 17 Another story about a player we didn't sign
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TractorCam added 09:46 - Mar 17 Heard you the 1st 100 times Jewell, lol.
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Michael11 added 09:59 - Mar 17 If he was that good surely he would have held out for someone a bit better than Peterborough, 3 points today COYB!
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arc added 10:39 - Mar 17 Jewell's attitude to academies is very interesting. It goes with his constant desire to send young players out on loan "to toughen them up" or "see what it's like in the real world." No wonder he loaded us up with the old and decrepit–he thinks the youth of today are soft...
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Garv added 11:40 - Mar 17 The youth today are soft. You think Ronan Murray is ready to hold down a first team place? Barnett is exactly the kind of striker we want, don't understand why we didn't even bid? We surely would have had as much chance of signing him as Peterborough(?), but while other teams get deals done we dawdle. Really annoying.
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FriskinPriskin1 added 12:42 - Mar 17 Posh fans don't rate Barnett. Poor work rate and poor positionally from what I am told. Perhaps a good swerve at 3m. Garv - ever thought our scouts may be more thorough?
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Tillz9 added 13:00 - Mar 17 He cost just over £1m and has only played a couple of games for them (and scored) so for there fans to say they don't rate him already seems a bit daft !
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PauloJulio added 11:33 - Mar 18 Yawn! Another player we were interested in but didn't sign. I'd like to know our list of requirements that a player must have before we consider signing them!
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