RYAN Gosney has been added to Sholing’s quality goalkeeping pool.

The former Folland Sports No1 joined the Boatmen for training this week after the briefest of stays with Winchester City.

Having agreed to join Winchester at the start of June when they were still a Wessex Premier club, he had a change of heart when City gained a surprise promotion to the Southern League.

Unable to do the travelling in Division One South & West, he has opted to join Sholing who have swapped Southern League for Wessex football for ground grading reasons.

“Ryan sent me a text and I asked him to come to training,” said Diaper.

“We’re already well off for goalkeepers with Rory Anderson and Matt Brown but, at the end of the day, it’s all about healthy competition.”

Brown, voted man-of-the-match when Sholing famously lifted the FA Vase at Wembley in 2014, may not be with the Boatmen much longer in any case.

He will miss pre-season while away in America and could well be emigrating to the States in 12 months’ time.

“Gos is a very good ’keeper, as indeed Browner and Rory are, and he will fit in well here,” said Diaper.

“I hadn’t actually met him before last Saturday, but he played against us last year when he was injured and shouldn’t really have been playing.

“I didn’t realise until I met him that he’s quite a big lad of about 6ft 1in and he’s a real nice guy too.”

Gosney - younger brother of AFC Totton winger, Mike -  joins fellow new faces Jamie Bulpitt, Clive Makoni, James Davis, Jack Shiner and Lewis Kelly at the Silverlake Arena.

“Someone said to me what a good bunch of lads we’ve got here and that’s great,” said Diaper.

“It’s always good to talk to new people and freshen things up a bit.”

Having dropped back into the Wessex ranks for the second time in three seasons, Sholing are aware that they are not exactly flavour of the month with some of their Sydenhams rivals who see them as a “yo-yo” club.

“I’ve warned the guys that we’re not the most popular and that’s why we’ve got to be the fittest, strongest and the best we can, otherwise we’re always going to be up against it,” said Diaper.

“The club’s been founded on our social background, but also on being very disciplined and workmanlike. We’ve got a serious side as well as an enjoyment side – that’s what Sholing’s been built on for the last 15 years.”