Montrose boss Ray Farningham is facing a race against time to sign former Leeds and Aberdeen star Jamie Winter before today’s Ramsdens Cup tie against East Fife.
The midfielder is tied to Junior outfit Broughty Athletic, but was given permission to play for Montrose in pre-season games.
Farningham is still working on making Winter’s move a permanent one, but he did confirm he has added another player to his squad.
“Talks with Jamie and Broughty Athletic are still ongoing, but we are hopeful that we will have something sorted out for the game against East Fife,” said the Links Park gaffer.
“However, I have secured the signing of former Forfar and Arbroath player Paul Lunan and he goes straight into the squad for the game.
“We have not had a lot of time to prepare this summer, but everyone is in the same boat. A lot of sides are still working hard on bringing players in but we are going to be running with a tight squad and I only have room for one more, so it is not really a factor for me.
“The lads have done really well during pre-season and we will be looking for a good start against East Fife.
“It is good to be able to start at home in the cup but we are aware of just how difficult it will be against a side from a division above us.
“Robbo is sure to have them well prepared and they will be a tough proposition. However, we will be looking to hit the ground running as winning breeds confidence.”
A sign of how seriously East Fife are treating the match is the fact boss John Robertson has had the third division side watched no fewer than three times.
He said, “Montrose have shown terrific pre-season form. They’ve shown that they are very good going forward and we’re in for a tough game on their plastic pitch.
“For our first competitive match of the season we couldn’t get it much tougher really. They’ll fancy their chances.”
Andy Cook and David White are unavailable, but apart from them Robertson should have a full squad to choose from.
He added, “I’m happy with the players we’ve brought in over the summer. We’ll have a squad of 19 and a couple of youths.
“I’ve heard about some of the money going about in our league and we’re definitely not the biggest payers, that’s for sure.
“When you see the SPL players like Brian Kerr drifting down the leagues it shows the quality that will be on show this season, but we think our squad has good quality and our aim is to improve on last season.”