After Paul Farman got himself suspended during the 2019-20 campaign, Boro’ interim boss Mark Sampson turned to Derby County stopper Sam French. The Rams let him come to us on an emergency loan; the deal only due to last a week with Farman only banned for one match after picking up five yellows. In the season prior to his brief time with us, French featured for Derby’s U18 side on 24 occasions.

No matter how the lad’s career turns out, perhaps we might be able to say we had one small part to play in it. Or not. Who knows…