Bishop’s Stortford would love to extend young Spurs goalkeeper Elliot Krasniqi’s loan stay

Steve Castle would love to extend Elliot Krasniqi’s stay at Bishop’s Stortford after being mightily impressed by the Tottenham Hotspur loanee.

The young goalkeeper, who arrived from the Premier League side for a month on November 12, has helped the Blues win three Pitching In Southern League, Premier Central games in a row.

He saved a penalty on his debut in the victory over Harborough Town before they also triumphed at Spadling United.

And Krasniqi kept Stortford’s first clean sheet in 15 outings as they beat Barwell 1-0 at home at the weekend.

The Spurs shot-stopper joined after Ipswich Town loanee Charlie Binns suffered a broken finger, with manager Castle expecting the latter to be sidelined for another couple of months.

“We managed to get Elliot in and he’s a lovely lad and a very calm lad,” said Castle, whose side have moved up to 11th in the table.

“He can take a hell of a lot of credit for the winning run. He saved a penalty in his first game and the rest is history.

“He’s played a huge part in the three wins and he’s buzzing playing competitive men’s football. He’s been impressed with the standard and our stature.

“It’s suiting both parties. With a bit of luck we can get Elliot in for at least another month and see where it goes.”

The Blues travel to sixth-placed Stratford Town this Saturday to take on a side who have drawn five of their last six at home in the league.

“They’ll be in the play-offs minimum, I would think, and are a team I would always expect to be competitive in this league,” said Castle, whose side’s four-game unbeaten run in the league has come after a six-match losing streak in all competitions.

“It’s good that we’ve got ourselves back to winning ways. We’ve taken some small steps to make ourselves a bit harder to beat.

“We had to grind out the win on Saturday, rather than it being too expansive. It was hard-fought and one we were quite proud of.”