Lesmahagow Juniors manager Robert Irving hopes to strengthen his squad in January

Lesmahagow Juniors gaffer Robert Irving has admitted that he will be trying to strengthen his squad soon in a bid to climb away from the McBookie.com Central Division 1 relegation zone.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Dec 2017, 13:31 BST
Updated 4th Jan 2018, 16:47 BST
Lesmahagow Juniors manager Robert IrvingLesmahagow Juniors manager Robert Irving
Lesmahagow Juniors manager Robert Irving

’Gow are currently third bottom of the table with just six points from their opening seven matches of the 2017-2018 campaign, with the league campaign resuming in the New Year. With the bottom three sides at the end of the season going down, Irving admits that bringing in new faces imminently is a priority for him.He said: “Being third bottom isn’t where I wanted to be at this stage of the season but we still have 21 games to play so there are a lot of points to go for.“The season will start again in January or February, whenever we get the park playable.“It will be tough going for us, especially as we don’t have a big squad of players just now.“So I’m trying to strengthen the team all the time.“The easy thing to do is bring in several bodies to boost numbers, but what we need to do is bring in bodies that give us quality.“It is very difficult to bring in quality at this time of year but we have a few targets.“I would like to think that we will bring a few in during January.“I can’t name names but hopefully these deals will go through. It’s 50/50.“Quite often in junior football, players will initially show an interest in signing for you and then when it comes to the crunch they stay where they are.“But we have a wide net. Hopefully we can get players tied up in January or February.”Robert said that up front and central midfield are two obvious areas of the team that could do with being strengthened.Top scorer Steven Higgins has missed recent matches due to ankle ligament damage and faces another two weeks on the sidelines.And skipper Darren Lygate, a consistent performer in ’Gow’s midfield, also faces a lengthy absence after sustaining a horror skull fracture after slipping on ice last week.Robert even said that the ’Gow defence could also benefit from a new face.The Craighead Park men have conceded 20 goals in seven McBookie.com Central Division 1 matches this season.On Lesmahagow’s 1-0 defeat at Port Glasgow in a league match on December 16, Irving added: “The only positive was that we only conceded one goal, although Port Glasgow aren’t the best team we have faced this year.”