Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley has challenged new signing Ola Adeyemo to prove he deserves a longer-term deal at the club.
Adeyemo joined yesterday on a deal until January, providing Hartley and Cove with the striking reinforcement they had been hoping for.
The 26-year-old was born in London but raised in Dublin, starting his professional career with UCD. He had a short spell at Dundee United, making two substitute appearances in 2014-15, before a loan spell with East Fife.
He spent a year with Watford’s under-21s before moving to Norwegian third-tier side Valdres. A trial with Falkirk in 2018 – three months after Hartley had left – failed to yield a deal and Adeyemo went on to play non-league football for Walton Casuals and Lewes.
✍️ We are delighted to confirm the signing of former Watford, Dundee United and East Fife striker Ola Adeyemo.
The 26-year-old, who was born in Nigeria but raised in London and Dublin, has agreed a deal until January and will wear the number 17 shirt.
𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚, 𝙊𝙡𝙖 🤝
— Cove Rangers FC (@CoveRangersFC) September 9, 2021
His most recent club was League of Ireland side Wexford, but the new Cove arrival has not played in more than a year.
He has been training with Cove for the last couple of weeks and has been doing additional work with Hartley during the week to get up to speed.
The Cove boss said: “We’ve managed to get something done short-term, so we’re happy with that. We’ve had him up for the last couple of weeks and it’s now up to him to impress in a short period of time.
“It gives us something different. He’s strong, left-sided and quick. He’s willing to learn and put the work in, so it’s now up to him.
“He’s not played for a while, but his fitness levels are decent. He’s been doing extra stuff with myself to get up to speed.”
International clearance has come through for Adeyemo, who has trained with the Nigerian under-23 squad, to be involved in Saturday’s game against Montrose.
Hartley has been further boosted by the return of a number of key players who have been absent of late.
Ross Draper has missed the last five games with bone bruising, but is available again, while Iain Vigurs returns to the side after missing the Stenhousemuir game due to illness.
Harry Milne and Ryan Strachan, who were both on the bench last weekend, but were under the weather and never likely to play, have both improved during the week.
Defender Jevan Anderson is the only player out as he continues his recovery from injury suffered against Clyde.
Hartley added: “We’re back up to where we want to be. Harry and Ryan have had a little bit of illness, but we’ve tried to ease them back in.
“It’s been difficult, but hopefully we’re getting a more settled team. We’ve had to reshuffle and put people where they’re not used to playing, but the lads have not complained about it.”
The Aberdeen outfit scraped through against Stenny last weekend and Hartley is looking for more quality in front of goal against the side second in League One.
He added: “We’ve had something like 45 shots in the last two games, but had no reward for that. We need to keep working away and adding that bit of quality.
“Montrose are a very good, expansive football team. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but our home form has been good this year.”