Elgin City hope to finalise a loan deal for Cove Rangers defender Jevan Anderson.
City manager Gavin Price is keen to bolster his defensive options, after allowing Aldin El-Zubaidi to leave Borough Briggs.
Price is now working on a deal to bring in Anderson on a temporary deal in time for Saturday’s League Two match at home to Stirling Albion.
Anderson has made 10 appearances for Paul Hartley’s men this season, with his last outing coming from the bench in the extra-time defeat to Hibernian in the Scottish Cup on January 20.
The 21-year-old joined Cove last summer following two years with English side Burton Albion, having previously played for Highland League outfit Formartine United.
Elgin have agreed to cancel El-Zubaidi’s contract following a short stint at the club, with the Iraq-born player having only joined in January following a trial spell.
El-Zubaidi made just two appearances for City, starting in recent defeats to Stenhousemuir and Kelty Hearts.
Aldin El-Zubaidi's contract has been cancelled by mutual consent.
We wish him all the best for the future. pic.twitter.com/tYVrPoWt6V
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) February 24, 2022
Crucial period ahead for Black and Whites
The visit of Stirling takes on crucial significance for Elgin, who have been dragged into a bottom-of-the-table dogfight following a five-match losing streak.
Last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Cowdenbeath leaves Elgin just six points ahead of the bottom-placed Blue Brazil, who have two games in hand.
Price insists he retains full belief in his squad to pick up the points they require to get out of trouble.
He said: “The application was good in training this week. There is nothing else for it now, we just need to stand up and be counted.
“That goes for all of us, and that’s all there is to it.
“I still 100% believe in the players, there’s maybe just a little bit of a lack of confidence.
“We are not scoring goals when we are on top in games, which you need to do to win games of football.
“We are not doing that at the moment, but we have players within the squad to make that happen.
“We just have to now look forward. There are 30 points to play for.
“If we look at each individual game between now, we know we are capable of winning each and every one of them on our day.
“We just need to treat each game like that. There are three points at stake every Saturday now, and we’ve got to be up for the fight to get as many wins as we can.”
Price is determined to turn fine margins in his side’s favour, adding: “To be fair, I don’t think we are ever a million miles away from it.
“When it clicks, I think it’s going to click properly and I believe we will be fine.
“Football is a fickle game at times. We’ve just got to stick at it.
“We can’t compound the situation by feeling sorry for ourselves, and trying to fix things that don’t need fixed.
“We just need to look forward to Saturday and do our best to win the game.”