Mark Daly admits signing Kieran Brannan for the new West of Scotland League campaign is a huge coup for Wishaw after beating ‘bigger clubs’ to his signature.
The striker has signed up at the Beltane ahead of the new season - which was last week confirmed for a July 17 start date - and he joins a host of players to commit their futures to the club, with extensions announced for defenders Scott Nicol, James Brown and Ewan Herriot, winger David O’Donnell, midfielder Andy Duffy, striker Steff McDonald, vice-captain Mark Canning and skipper Ewan Ward.
Daly said: “Kieran is a massive signing for us. He had a lot of bigger offers from bigger clubs, but we managed to talk to him and give him somewhere he can get back to enjoying his football.
“I hope he can get back to doing what he does best and that’s scoring goals.
“It’s a huge one for us and he’s bought in to what we want to do here.
“I’m delighted to get all of these done early doors. We wanted to plan early, keep a lot of the guys and make some new signings as well.
“We are going to run with a smaller squad than we did last year, so we are making things a bit easier on ourselves getting these done now.”
Wishaw will return for pre-season on May 17, when contact training is allowed to resume and that will give Daly a full two months to get his charges prepared for their 2021/22 Conference C campaign.
Friendlies with local rivals Shotts Bon-Accord, Thorniewood, Whitletts Victoria and Armadale Thistle have also been pencilled in.
Daly added: “This gives us pretty much eight weeks until the first league game and, as it stands, we are looking at five friendlies in the build-up, with four of them filled so far.
“These are agreed with the clubs, so we are well ahead of schedule. You are just waiting for a curveball to get thrown at you, but it’s good to have a plan in place to get back playing."
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