Strathspey Thistle manager Charlie Brown has bolstered his squad with the signing of Ben Cullen and Michael MacCallum penning a new contract.
Striker Cullen joins the Grantown Jags after a successful spell with Junior side Dufftown.
Goalkeeper MacCallum has signed a contract for next season, which will be his eighth at Seafield Park.
Boss Brown hopes Cullen will provide the goals to move Strathspey up the Breedon Highland League table after their 16th placed finish last term.
He said: “Ben’s a proven goalscorer in the Juniors, he scored nearly 30 goals with Dufftown last season.
“He’s a penalty box striker which is something we’ve been missing.
“We’ve got boys that can create goals and score goals from outside the box, but we created a lot of chances inside the box that we didn’t take.
“Ben’s got a good eye for goal and if we create chances for him hopefully he’ll put the majority of them away.
Our Gaffer Charlie had this to say on his new addition.
“ Ben is a former Elgin City, Dufftown striker who is a major threat to opponents in and around the 18 yard box." https://t.co/srp1iBizbF— Strathspey Thistle FC (Official) (@JagsStfc) June 11, 2022
“Goals change games as the saying goes. If we can get our noses in front in games then we can make ourselves difficult to beat.
“Teams have done that to us and hopefully Ben can help take the pressure off the defence because if you’re not scoring goals it puts pressure on your defence not to concede.
“Sometimes that can lead to mistakes and last season we lost a lot of points with narrow defeats where we were in the game until the closing stages and little mistakes cost us.
“Hopefully Ben and our other forwards can get us the goals to win us games.”
Vital experience
On keeping experienced custodian MacCallum at the club, Brown added: “I’m delighted to get Michael to extend his stay with us for another year.
“Michael’s experience and quality as a keeper will be vital to us throughout the season.
“Last season was a stop-start affair due an unfortunate injury, injury-free Michael is hoping to kick off where he left last season in great form.”
