Enquiries are starting to come in for Arbroath’s star striker Simon Murray, Gayfield boss Allan Moore has revealed.
Sixteen goals, including two hat-tricks, for the runaway League Two leaders hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Moore will be speaking to Murray, who was plucked from the juniors in the summer, about the clubs who have sounded him out about the 22-year-old.
But he is hopeful that the former Tayport and Dundee Violet attacker will decide to stay with Arbroath through to the summer.
Moore revealed: “There is interest from a number of clubs.
“I’ve had enquiries. It’s been guys I know asking about him rather than formal offers.
“It’s not fair to say who they are because I’ve not spoken to Simon about it yet.
“If he does move, then good luck to him, but we’re hoping to keep him until the end of the season.
“We’ve got Simon on 16 goals and Paul (McManus) on 17. They’re at opposite ends of their career.
“It’s disappointing that we’ve not got him on a longer contract but we took a chance on him coming out of the juniors, and he’s blossomed.
“We’ve offered Simon a new contract but he knocked it back.”
Dylan Easton arrived from St Johnstone on a short-term loan recently, and Moore has already seen enough to want to extend that deal through to the summer.
He explained: “Dylan hasn’t started yet because the team’s been winning but I’m sure he’ll force his way in. He’s got talent and there’s a bit of swagger about him, which I like as well.
“Hopefully he’ll be with us for longer than just a month.”
Arbroath couldn’t be going into today’s Angus derby clash with Montrose in better spirits.
Moore’s men are six points clear at the top of the division and coming off a 5-1 win against East Fife.
He said: “We’ve played Montrose a few times already and we’ve got a good record against them. Hopefully that will continue.
“We played some good football and scored some good goals last weekend.”
The priority for Moore in the transfer window is bolstering his defence.
“Middle to front, we’re OK,” he pointed out. “But we’re short at the back and I’m on the look-out.”
Meanwhile, Montrose boss George Shields has told his players to forget about the 5-1 defeat from Arbroath that attracted national headlines when goalkeeper Lucas Birnstingl left for Canada the next day, and concentrate on the other three games between the sides.
Shields explained: “We lost 3-0 at Gayfield in the first meeting when we actually has as many if not more efforts on goal. We drew in the Scottish Cup as well so we should look back to what we did well in those games as opposed to getting hung up on the last one.
“That was a disappointing day where anything that could have gone against us went against us including their goalkeeper scoring.”
Shields believes it is imperative his side are quick starters, after a sluggish opening saw them lose to Elgin last weekend.
He said: “We were slow to get going and were two goals down before half-time and that gave us a mountain to climb in the second 45 minutes.
“It was a shame after playing so well the week before when we should have won at Albion Rovers. Arbroath have good strikers and if we give them any encouragement by being slack in the opening exchanges we will be punished.”
The Links Park boss is keen to field a trialist defender after missing out on former Arbroath stopper Michael Travis. Craig Bell and Stephen Robb are injured and midfielder Leszek Nowosielski has left the club.