GILLS boss Mark Stimson revealed he came close to bringing in a second striker before the transfer window shut on Thursday.

The player went on loan to another Championship club, but Stimson said he would have been "a big player for us in a lot of ways.”

The two players moving on loan between Championship clubs on deadline day were Sheffield United’s Geoff Horsfield and Bristol City’s Enoch Showunmi, with the latter more likely to have been on Stimson’s radar.

Another player who was on Stimson’s interested list was Stockport’s 25-year-old striker Anthony Elding but he joined promotion-chasing Leeds.

Stimson will be able to move in the loan market after freeing up space in his squad by releasing experienced trio Steve Lomas, Craig Armstrong and Dave Graham.

He said: “I wish those players, except one, all the best and hope they go on and play football.

“Long-term, it’s good for the club. If those players had sat around for the period of their contract they would probably have earned more money than they agreed to take in a settlement.

“It was just frustrating that they didn’t go six weeks earlier.”