Elgin City midfielder Thomas Reilly believes the Elgin City squad is the strongest he has been part of as he begins his third season with the club.
The Black and Whites finished fifth last season after a poor run of results at the end of the campaign cost them the chance of a play-off place but former St Mirren player Reilly believes manager Jim Weir has strengthened the squad in the close season.
He said: “The new players have settled quickly and I’m really optimistic about the new season.
“I believe we have a better squad now than we’ve had in the last couple of years and this game will give us a chance to gauge where we are at for the new campaign.
“Jon-Paul McGovern is an important signing for us and he brings some experience in midfield to what will be a young team this year.”
Weir is still searching for another attacker but Reilly is confident the current crop can fill the void left by Shane Sutherland.
The League 2 player of the year is out of action until 2018 as he recovers from a cruciate ligament injury.
Reilly said: “Everyone knows how important Shane was for us and the results when he was not in the team show what he brings. His position is the hardest one on the pitch as there is not a line of 20-goal players we can just go and pick from.
“It’s up to the manager to assess his squad and if he thinks he needs another forward in then that’s his prerogative but I believe we’ve got good forwards here to get the job done.”
After successive defeats by Dunfermline and Hearts, Elgin face a side of a comparable standard tonight when they travel to New Bayview to play League 1 club East Fife in the Betfred Cup.
Reilly believes the final two games of the group will give a better analysis of Elgin’s qualities for the new campaign.
He said: “This has been the toughest pre-season I can remember.
“In the past we’ve played Highland League clubs and won convincingly but this summer we’ve played Ross County, Caley Thistle, Dunfermline and Hearts.
“I can’t remember four games where we’ve done so much running and seen so little of the ball throughout the matches.
“Dunfermline beat us heavily but we did all right in the other three games.
“Now we’ve got East Fife and Peterhead it feels as if we have games which can allow us to play a bit and prepare for the new season.
“The matches this week will give us a better gauge of where we are.”