Paul Hartley feels his Cove Rangers squad is light on numbers and he will need to make signings.
Cove face Forfar Athletic in their final pre-season friendly at Station Park tonight and Hartley is again likely to field a number of the club’s youngsters on the bench.
Long-serving skipper Eric Watson departed in the summer for Inverurie Locos, while strikers Paul McManus and Jordan MacRae left for Brechin City and Brora Rangers respectively.
Jamie Redman has joined League 2’s newest club but with the change in management – Hartley replaced John Sheran as manager last week – recruitment has been limited.
Hartley said: “We still feel we’re a bit short. We had to put some kids on the bench (against Montrose) that wouldn’t usually be involved.
“We maybe need a couple of additions to make the squad stronger. There’s not specific areas, but do we need help, or are we short in one or two areas that need strengthening?
“That will be our job over the next couple of weeks.”
Hartley has won both of his pre-season friendlies so far against Inverurie Locos and Montrose, with his first competitive fixture coming against Peterhead in the Betfred Cup on Saturday.
Testing themselves against league opposition again tonight is good preparation for Hartley and his squad ahead of the return to competitive action.
He added: “They are hard games against tough opposition. They are games that we wanted. No-one probably expects us to win in the Betfred Cup but I’ve told the players I want us to compete in every game.
“These games will stand us in good stead because the opposition we’re playing, we’ll need to face that every week in the league.”
One of his first acts as manager was to name Mitch Megginson as the club’s new captain, replacing Watson.
Megginson, the former Aberdeen and Alloa Athletic forward, has been renowned for his goalscoring exploits in the Highland League, hitting 101 league goals in the last two seasons.
However, Hartley has stressed that the burden will have to be shared around once Cove make the step up to the SPFL.
He said: “To get 40 or 50 goals a season is more difficult as you go up the league. If he gets 20 this season we’ll be delighted and he knows that.
“He knows that it’s not just one person’s responsibility. You’ve got to have people chipping in from all over the pitch.
“He’s the type of player that takes responsibility and leads by example. I’m not looking for a ranter and raver as captain. I know Mitch pretty well and saw how he led the team out at the end of the season. There was no real need to change it.”
Scott Ross and Redman will be back involved at Station Park but Ryan Strachan is likely to sit out with an achilles injury.