It has been well documented that a lot of the clubs in the lower reaches of the SkyBet Football League depend on loan players to bolster their squads.

It helps freshen them up when the purse strings cannot perhaps stretch to permanent signings.  But what of the players themselves who are more often than not dropping down from a higher level in a bid to get ever precious game time to possibly kick on their own careers?

KSN put this to one of the success stories thus far at Priestfield – striker Alex Jakubiak who was one of Steve Evans first signings when he joined on loan from Watford.

Since signing for the Hornets in 2014 as a fifteen year old, Alex has spent the last three seasons on loan at four different clubs – Fleetwood Town, Wycombe Wanderers, Falkirk and Bristol Rovers – before arriving here in Kent in the summer, and we asked him what exactly a player going on loan looks to get from the experience.  He told us: “I think different players look at it differently. 

“For me personally, I’m still young and want  to pick up bits of the game that maybe I may not learn by playing in the under 23s at Watford.  This is ‘mens’ football – its League football and I think its better to be in a side that’s playing for something rather than being in the twenty-three’s have you playing each week but there’s no real prize at the end of it.”

“I feel like I’m going to benefit by having more competitiveness by playing here.  It’s a lot of learning but at the end of the day you want to prove to your parent club what you can do – that you can play and that you can perform at the level that you’re playing at or higher and achieve things which will be good for the club as well.”

“There were a number of things that attracted me to Priestfield – I played here last season when I was at Bristol Rovers on a Tuesday night and the atmosphere that the crowd created was one thing that swayed me to come. 

“The manager has his visions and his ideas as well that were put to me before I signed and they were convincing as well!  The crowd so far have been great – they were fully behind us against Blackpool and Bolton and we’re going to need that backing all season as I’m sure that there will be games when we’re down a goal or even up a goal and we’re going to need that support all the way to the end.  I’m sure that they’re going to play a big part for us this season.”