Elgin City manager Allan Hale is appealing to the Borough Briggs board to finance his move to bring in new signings in January transfer window to help with injury concerns and aid the club’s William Hill League 2 promotion challenge
Elgin City manager Allan Hale wants the Borough Briggs board to back another raid on the transfer market in January.
Hale’s team selection in recent weeks has been affected by a spate of injuries, with the Black and Whites boss saying he doesn’t expect the situation to improve greatly over the coming months.
He cannot sign any reinforcements to his squad until the transfer window re-opens in January, but is eager to add to his options in an effort to continue City’s push for promotion.
“We know the injury circumstances and we know that it’s going to be that way for a while,” he said.
“We need to hope that in January we can get a bit of support and be able to take a couple in.”
At present, Elgin have goalkeepers Tom McHale and Olly Kelly out injured along with captain Matthew Cooper, centre backs Jake Dolzanski and Ross Draper and midfielder Rory MacEwan.
Midfield duo Lewis Hyde and Ryan MacLeman have been out injured for several weeks but played as substitutes in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Bonnyrigg Rose despite not being fully fit for action.
Hale has made major changes to City’s squad since coming in as boss last December.
He made eight new signings during the close season by bringing in forwards Olly McDonald, Ryan Sargent, Dajon Golding and Dylan Gavin along with Hyde and Mark Gallagher in midfield, and defenders Jack Murray and Kyle Girvan.
Injury to keeper McHale forced the manager to delve into the loan market and recruit Aidan Glavin as a replacement, along with winger Kian Leslie, from Premiership side Kilmarnock.
He has a squad of 24 players at present which include at least eight carrying injury and three inexperienced youngsters
Glavin and Leslie will return to their parent club at the end of this year, and Hale is keen to bring in some additions.
“On Saturday we had four of our under-18s on the bench, and Lewis and Ryan who are injured,” Hale added. “It’s not ideal, the bench is not the strength that typically it is when everyone is fit and available.”
The manager said he is not in the position at present to say when some of his injured regulars will be able to return to the field.
“I don’t know where we are with our injury crisis at the moment. I don’t have a detailed report from the physio so I don’t know where we are at in terms of the timeline.
“We are working with the medical team to ascertain that. Some people need scans and we need to wait for those to come through, and once we know the diagnosis and type of injuries from the scan, that’s when the physio can start to implement a rehab programme.”
He is asking the club to support his efforts to strengthen his player pool in the new year.
“I wouldn’t say we will have a lot of players back by January. One or two potentially might be out a bit longer.
“No-one will be back soon. From week-to-week I don’t think things are going to change.
“Most of the injuries are medium to longer term so I don’t think week-to-week that we will see three or four players back.
“I can’t sign anyone at this stage so we’ve got no choice but to have players on the bench who aren’t fit. We need to fill a bench and we need to try and have options.
“The concern for me is that you are having to put players on the bench that are injured, and they might have to play because we need to make changes during games.”
Hale not only played two injured players as subs at Bonnyrigg, but also fielded two inexperienced 16-year-olds late in the game.
Daniel Fraser came on for two sub appearances at the end of last season, while ex-Aberdeen kid Liam MacDonald impressed Hale when he came on for his club debut on Saturday.
“Our circumstances do offer an opportunity for other people to come in,” he said.
“When you look at Liam MacDonald, he was only on the pitch for six or seven minutes but he was a real shining light in an otherwise disappointing day.
“He played with intensity and aggression, he offered penetration and an ability to press. That’s someone who is only 16.”
Hale had to cancel a training session last week due to a lack of fit bodies available. He has had to adopt the ‘cotton wool’ treatment on his squad with so many missing, but said he cannot go light on training every week and expect results to come on matchdays.
“You’ve got to be careful but at the same time you can’t just do nothing,” he said.
“Last week was quite unique in terms of us not being able to get the proper preparation. We had to give the players Tuesday off last week because we didn’t have enough fit players to run a training session. On Thursday we got everyone together and it was quite light.
We can’t keep doing that week-to-week. We’ve got to keep refining the things that we need to work on.
“Especially with last Saturday, there was a lot in that performance that we need to work on.
“So we will keep doing the training sessions that we usually do at the usual intensity and hopefully we will get some reinforcements in due course.”
