Elgin City manager Gavin Price reckons Brazilian-born Matheus Machado will bring further flair to his League Two entertainers.
The Black and Whites snapped up the former Caley Thistle starlet, 20, as he returned from a year with Rio Ave in the second-tier in Portugal.
Midfielder Machado, whose footballing journey began for real with Red Bull Brasil three years ago, has settled back into life in the north of Scotland and has impressed enough to score a one-year deal.
Price said: “It’s a good bit of business for us. Matheus has been training with us for around four weeks now.
“He’s come back from Portugal and we were waiting on international clearance. His family still live in Inverness, so it’s another north-based player for us, which is important.
“He’s shown up well in training and I’m glad to get everything sorted out. He’s a very good technical player and will fit in well.
“He’ll add to the good competition we have in that area of the park. It’s another positive addition.”
Machado goes straight into the squad for tomorrow’s home league clash with joint leaders Forfar Athletic.
SIGNING NEWS ✍️
We are delighted to announce the signing of former Rio Ave & ICT midfielder Matheus Machado.
Matheus will join on a one year contract and be part of the Squad for tomorrow’s match vs Forfar Athletic ⚽️
Welcome to the Club Matheus 🖤 pic.twitter.com/FwD4NHJbVc
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 20, 2021
Price hopes the wait has been worth it for fans as he backs his team to be entertaining and well as competitive this season.
The boss wants home supporters to witness another impressive showing just seven days on from their fine 3-0 league victory over Albion Rovers at Borough Briggs.
He said: “We have exciting forward players at Elgin.
“Unfortunately, the supporters have not really seen the team in action properly for almost two years, but hopefully we can maintain that standard of performances at home to attract more people down to Borough Briggs.”
Matchday Info vs Forfar ⚽
This Saturday we host @ForfarAthletic at Borough Briggs in Cinch League 2 🤩🤩
With restrictions nearly back to normal head to our website for all you need to know about matchday
See you Saturday 🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/1ygkJxQk2x
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 19, 2021
Weekend visitors Forfar, who automatically dropped down from League One in May, have had a strong start to this season, sitting top of the pack with Kelty Hearts, who they held to a 2-2 draw last week.
They have also beaten Annan Athletic and Edinburgh City to get off to an unbeaten start.
Teams still testing one another
Price acknowledged their visitors will arrive in Moray in high spirits, however, he said it’s far too early to judge whether the Angus team would be in the mix for promotion.
He added: “I think it’s still early days in terms of the season. Players and teams are just testing themselves and it will take a bit more time to see which teams are going to be strong.
“Forfar have recruited well though and started well, so we’ll need another performance similar to last week.”
It’s four years since Elgin and Forfar met in League Two when three matches were drawn and the Loons edged to a 3-2 win, with goals scored by both teams every time.
It was Kane Hester’s treble which sunk a dangerous Albion Rovers side 3-0 last Saturday to shoot Elgin into the top four.
That victory came hot on the heels of a 2-1 SPFL Trust Trophy win away to Hibernian Colts, which has lined them up with a second round shot at Championship opponents Dunfermline Athletic on September 4.
DUNFERMLINE MATCH INFO ⚽
Our #spfltrusttrophy tie with @officialdafc will take place on Saturday 4th September at 3pm 🤩
🎟️ Tickets- https://t.co/e6jb9v7O1D or download the Fanbase app
🥂Matchday Hospitality details and link to book 👉 https://t.co/DSN4Nek6uJ
🖤🤍🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/auV4E30Dc0
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 20, 2021
However, getting their first league victory on the board, in such a convincing manner last week, was just the tonic after playing well in spells too often in the opening weeks.
They were held to a 2-2 draw against Stranraer on the opening day before sliding to a 3-1 defeat at Cowdenbeath, but last week’s display was a measure of the real Elgin.
Disappointment at midweek cup exit
On Wednesday, Elgin’s hectic run of fixtures continued, but came to an end in the North of Scotland Cup as they lost 2-0 at Highland League hosts Rothes at the quarter-final stage.
Price said: “We have to find the balance between the competitions and we picked a team that was a hybrid between younger players and first-team players.
Full Time ⚽@RothesFC 2-0 Elgin City
Two first half goals from Jack Brown send us out of the North of Scotland Cup.
Good luck to Rothes in the Semi Final. Next up is Forfar Athletic at home in the league on Saturday. 🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/CahjJXkavh
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) August 18, 2021
“It was a chance to give some of the younger lads some valuable game time, those who haven’t been playing.
“It was a good exercise on that front, but it was disappointing because I still felt we had a strong enough team to do better in the game, but it gave time on the park to players who benefited from it.
“Finn Allen and Dylan Lawrence, for example, both played, so that was positive.”