Peterhead manager Jim McInally is pleased with the signings he was able to make during the January transfer window.
The Blue Toon boss added three players – midfielder Jordon Brown, attacker Niah Payne and defender Andrew McDonald – to his squad last month.
However, the Buchan outfit have lost loanees Kieran Freeman and Lyall Cameron, who have returned to parent clubs Dundee United and Dundee, while Josh Rae has joined Queen of the South on a seven-day emergency loan.
It was a quiet deadline day for Peterhead with no business done before the window closed last night.
Assessing the deals he’s managed to do, McInally said: “We’ve got two players that haven’t been able to play a game for us yet unfortunately (Payne and McDonald).
“But on paper I’m happy with the signings we’ve made, we lost the two loan players with no guarantee of getting then back, which is a blow because they’ve been terrific.
“Getting Niah and Andy in is something I’m delighted with.
“We were short defensively so getting Andy was important and Niah gives us something else going forward so we’ve managed to cover areas we were short in.
“Jordon can be a second striker or a goalscoring midfield player.
“I’ve said before Scott Brown was the only real contributor when it came to goals from midfield so Jordon gives us another one.
“He played for about 70 minutes against Cove (on January 2) and he looked in really good nick.
“Getting Jordon back with the type of player he is and the type of professional he is, that’s been good business.”
With football below the Championship shutdown until February 14 at the earliest Dundee United chose to recall defender Freeman and Dundee did the same with attacker Cameron.
McInally would like to bring them back to Balmoor with the loan window for lower leagues open until the end of this month.
But there’s no guarantee with no date set for the lower leagues restarting.
Scotland’s longest serving manager added: “Losing Kieran leaves us short again defensively to a certain extent because he’s played every position across the back four.
“Lyall with the way he plays is quite hard to replace because he’s quite unique in his style, he’s an old-fashioned winger type of player.
“I’m happy with what we’ve brought in, but disappointed we’ve lost the two loan players.
“Maybe if we have a date for when we get back playing that could be remedied again.”
One player McInally does hope to see the best of when Peterhead resume is on-loan Dundee midfielder Josh Mulligan.
The 18-year-old joined the Blue Toon at the start of the season, but only featured in the first game of the campaign against Dundee United in the League Cup with an ankle injury keeping him sidelined since.
McInally said: “Josh is still on loan to us and there’s still a chance we could have him involved.
“I spoke to Dundee’s physio a couple of weeks ago and he thought he should be ready by February.
“I was keen to get Josh in and because of the shutdown if he is available he won’t be playing much catch-up in comparison with the rest of the squad when it comes to fitness and sharpness.
“Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long to get him back up to speed.”