Lowestoft Town's frustration at seeing yet another match postponed at Crown Meadow last night was tempered by the news that Joe Jefford has joined the club.

The former Kirkley & Pakefield skipper was released by the Walmer Road outfit at the end of last week in the wake of cuts being made at the club and Lowestoft have swooped for the highly rated defender.

Jefford joins former Kirkley team-mates, Russell Stock and Ian Dawson in signing for the Blues, and joint boss Micky Chapman revealed they had been keeping tabs on the player for some time.

'He has built up an excellent reputation at Kirkley and to be honest we've had our eye on him for quite a while,' said Chapman, whose side were due to entertain Maidstone in the Ryman League Premier last night. 'I'm sure he will prove to be a great signing for us and he will only get better by training with better players.

'He will learn a lot from the likes of (Adrian) Forbes, (Scott) Mitchell and (Dale) Cockrill and it's a great step for him.'

Lowestoft now have four capable centre halves vying for two places in the first XI but Chapman insists the club will need as much quality at their disposal as possible with a heavy fixture schedule in prospect.

'We're going to need strength in depth in the second half of the season with the games coming thick and fast,' added Gallagher, who has also got the likes of Greg Crane, Sam Gaughran and Curtis Haynes-Brown as options in central defence. 'It's impossible to have too many good players to choose from. No-one is going to be able to play every single game if we're playing four games in a week so we're going to need all the quality we can get.'

Gallagher admitted that yesterday's postponement was far from ideal, given that the Blues are already at least three games behind the teams sitting above them in fifth place. But he is not unduly worried about the prospect of games coming thick and fast later in the season if the weather continues to impact upon their campaign.

'It's really frustrating but we can't control the weather,' he said. 'The more games that get called off the more difficult it becomes to fit them all in before the end of the season. I don't think we're at the stage where we have to worry about that too much yet but if teams are going to have to play Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday then it's going to take its toll.

'We are not the only ones in that position and it's just something that we've got to deal with.'

Chapman said that thoughts have already turned to Saturday's match at home to Carshalton Athletic, weather permitting, and is confident his squad will be ready despite the difficulty in finding somewhere to train.

'We had a long lay-off last month and the boys coped with it very well. That's what we will be aiming to do again.'