Brora Rangers manager Steven Mackay is hoping to add to his squad before the start of the Highland League season.
The Cattachs have been in Premier Sports Cup action, losing 3-0 to League One Montrose and 4-0 to Premiership Dundee on Tuesday night.
For both fixtures the Sutherland outfit had a squad of just 14 players available.
After further League Cup ties against Forfar Athletic and Ross County, Brora will start their Highland League campaign on July 24 and Mackay hopes to have brought some new faces to Dudgeon Park.
He said: “We were looking to make a couple of changes at half-time, but we were conscious that we only had a couple of outfield players on the bench.
“We’ve got a really tight squad at the moment and we’re looking to bring in a couple of players.
“It’s been tough to bring in the right types of players, we don’t want to panic and just bring in anyone that is available.
“We want to stick to our strategy and bring in the right types of players and we’ll do that and we’re hoping to do that before the season starts.
“But it’s tough to make changes with the tight squad we had.”
Dundee clash ‘a good exercise’
Brora were unable to play any pre-season friendlies because of Covid-19 issues.
Mackay felt the Cattachs acquitted themselves well against Premiership Dundee, who prevailed courtesy of Paul McMullen’s brace and strikes from Paul McGowan and Alex Jakubiak.
Mackay added: “It was a good exercise for us, we knew it was going to be tough.
“Under normal circumstances it would have been tough, but particularly when we’ve had no pre-season games.
“It was always going to be a difficult game for us but our application was good, our shape at times was good and we kept our discipline.
“We got out of the game what we expected because it was a good fitness exercise for us.”
Malin missing
Brora were without regular goalkeeper Joe Malin against Dundee and drafted in Grant Beattie to deputise between the posts.
“Joe had a back spasm on Monday and it was a bit of a frantic 24 hours trying to find another goalkeeper,” Mackay said.
“Young Grant Beattie came in for us last season against Forfar and bailed us out and he did the same against Dundee.
“I thought he did really well and we were grateful for that.”
Looking forward to meeting the Loons
Brora return to action in Group C when League Two outfit Forfar visit Dudgeon Park on Saturday.
Mackay says the Highland League champions feel the meeting with the Loons is their best chance of earning some points in the section.
He said: “Forfar at home was a game that when we looked at the group we felt might be an opportunity for us to try to do something.
“That’s not being disrespectful to Forfar, but when it’s our squad versus theirs I don’t think there’s a huge difference.
“We look forward to that on Saturday and seeing if we can do something in that.
“Then we’ve got a local game against Ross County which will be a great exercise for us in terms of playing a Premiership club and we look forward to that one.”
