Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid was delighted to welcome two new signings to the club – as he sweats on a current duo being ready for the league campaign kicking off at the end of the month.
The Cliftonhill outfit snapped up former Hamilton Accies midfielder Charlie Reilly and ex-Annan striker Max Wright last week after the pair had trained with the club in recent weeks.
Reid is delighted to get them on board and they both made their first outings for the club in the weekend’s NL Cup, which saw Rovers finish third in an event Clyde won and also included Airdrie and Cumbernauld Colts.
Rovers get the competitive action underway on Saturday when they host Ayr in the Premier Sports Cup Group E opener.
However, ex-Hearts star Ryan Stevenson and defender Aldin El-Zubaidi won’t be ready for that and face a race to be fit for their League Two opener on July 31 at home to Edinburgh City.
Reid explained: “We signed Charlie Reilly and Max Wright so they are two good additions and I think they’ll really help us in the season ahead.
“They will play a big part for us and because we’ve gone with a smaller squad we want to keep everyone fit.
“We are already one or two down at the moment with Ryan Stevenson and El-Zubaidi.
“Aldin has had a minor operation on his groin but he should be back for the start of the league campaign.
“Ryan is probably two or three weeks away as well with his Achilles issue he had when he came off against Annan last season. He’s not quite up to speed yet. That’s never ideal at the start of the season, but hopefully they will be fit for the league games.”
Reid is looking forward to hosting his old club Ayr on Saturday in their League Cup section, which also includes Falkirk, Hamilton Accies and Edinburgh City.
But with the NL Cup games over the weekend their first matches of the summer, he admits the League Cup will need to be used as an extension of their pre-season.
He added: “We’ll be using the League Cup as pre-season, as a lot of clubs do, but we will still be going out to win the games.
“Ayr will be tough, but they are all tough games for us with Falkirk, Hamilton and Edinburgh City in there as well.
“I know Hoppy [Ayr boss David Hopkin]well. We were at Morton together so I know he’ll have his team ready. It’s good, competitive games for us now and you still want to do well.
“I’m not demeaning the cup in any way. This stage of the season a lot of clubs use it for pre-season and we still want to put performances in and do well in the competition.”
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