Sittingbourne boss Gary Abbott appears to have solved his goalkeeping problem by signing Steve Northwood.

The former Thamesmead man played for an hour in the 1-0 pre-season friendly defeat at Carshalton on Tuesday night, and looks set to start the season as first choice with former England under-19 international Adam Molloy as cover.

Northwood joined Thamesmead for a second time last season, and has also had spells with Maidstone and Cray.

Abbott, pictured, has also moved for Lee Hockey and Lawrence Harvey, who were left without a club following Ashford’s demise. Hockey returns to Bourne Park after following former boss Steve Lovell to Homelands in December 2007. Harvey is expected to sign next week.

Jimmy Bottle and last season’s top scorer Hicham Akhazzan both played returned at Carshalton.

Abbott said: "Jimmy has changed his job, and has been sorting out his shifts, while Hicham coming back is also good news. Faversham came in for him about a month ago, but we had a chat and he agreed to stay.

"We played really well, such a big difference to the Hythe game, and I took a lot of positives out of it."

Young defender Nick Coles had stitches in a badly cut eye, after a clash of heads at Carshalton.

Bourne travel to Essex side Maldon and Tiptree tomorrow (Saturday) and host Maidstone in their final pre-season friendly on Monday night.