Cove Rangers manager Paul Hartley wants Tom Leighton to get games under his belt at Lowland League club East Kilbride.
Cove loaned Leighton to Kilby last month to allow him to play, with Hartley feeling his side had cover at the back.
Leighton played seven times for Cove last season in League Two, joining the Aberdeen side following his departure from then-Premier League side Watford.
He started in the Betfred Cup tie against Brora Rangers but was loaned to Stevie Aitken’s side prior to the start of the League One season.
The arrival of Adam Livingstone and Ross Graham, who cover left-back and centre-half respectively, and Scott Ross’ move out to full-back means game-time would be hard to come by for Leighton.
Kilby have recruited a number of players with SPFL experience this summer, in a bid to challenge for promotion. Former Partick Thistle and Dundee United pair Chris Erskine and Paul Paton, ex-Rangers youngster Kyle Hutton, Lewis Kidd (Queen of the South) and Steven Bell (Ayr United) have all penned deals at K Park.
Today’s EK lineup to take in @TheShireFC 🔶🔷🔶🔷 pic.twitter.com/aWfEomfB2c
— East Kilbride FC (@officialEKFC) October 28, 2020
Hartley said: “It’s just until January so he can play games. We’re very strong in that department now and we felt at his age – he’s going to go to a good level with a team that’s ambitious.
“He’s not played a lot of games of late as a young man so we felt to get that experience, it’d be good for him.
“There’s a lot of ex-Premier League players there and it’s an ambitious club. We felt it was good for both sides and we can monitor him over the next couple of months, see how he does.
“He’s shown he wants to go out and play games. It’s a good level and a strong league – there’s three or four teams wanting to get into the SPFL. He knew he was going into a good club and working with a good manager.”