SQUAD

After a turbulent season last time round, it has proved to be an equally busy summer with significant changes at the club both on and off the pitch.

Eighteen players were signed during 2022-23, either permanently or on loan, and of those, only Jason Naismith remains at Balmoral Stadium.

Five loanees returned to their parent clubs in January, the others left at the conclusion of the campaign along with Miko Virtanen and Gime Toure, while Scott Fox departed a couple of weeks ago.

Luis Longstaff was offered a new deal but opted to return south to pursue his future career in English football.

We also said farewell to some club stalwarts who had served Cove Rangers well over the years with Scott Ross, Leighton McIntosh and Kyle Gourlay among those to leave the club.

The move towards a full-time set-up means we will be operating a hybrid system in the short term, and some key players, who have been part-time throughout their Cove careers, will continue to be a massive part of the team.

Training has been implemented in a way which integrates that group: Mitch Megginson, Connor Scully, Blair Yule, Fraser Fyvie, Mark Reynolds, Iain Vigurs and Jason Naismith, with all the other players doing daily sessions.

The manager has moved to strengthen the squad, lowering the average age in the process, and to date has brought in eight players, all on full-time contracts, with highly-rated goalkeeper Balint Demus also penning a new deal.

He has been running the rule over a number of trialists in recent weeks and will continue to do so while at the same time using his extensive contracts to bring more new faces to the club.