COWDENBEATH boss Gary Bollan is stepping up his moves to get a new 'keeper for the coming season after a possible deal fell through at the last moment.

The manager is counting down the days now until the start of training at the start of September, and he hopes to have the right number one in place by then.

Mr Bollan is committed to 'getting his own man' after a series of loan deals last season saw the Blue Brazil without a regular 'keeper, following Kevin Dabrowski having his jaw broken at Stenhousemuir in September.

The Hibs loanee was out for several weeks, and then came back for a short spell, before a leg injury saw him return to Hibs.

Several other loan 'keepers played, until Josh Rae signed up at the end of January and he filled the jersey until the coronavirus crisis ended the season in mid March.

"We want our own 'keeper, because the way things worked out last season after big Kevin got injured, was that we did not know who we would have between the sticks until hours before kick-off and that is not good for the team," he said.

"Each of the guys who came in late for us did well, but from the defence's point of view they really want to know who the 'keeper is on a Thursday night.

"We seemed to be closing in on a target a couple of weeks ago, but at the last moment things fell through, but we have a couple of lads in our minds just now and hopefully we can get things sorted before pre-season training starts at the beginning of September."

The manager said that it felt the strangest time he had experienced in his many years in senior football: "Our players are still on furlough until the end of August, and of course normally we would have been starting the Betfred Cup just now, but it was good to find out last week that we will have three games in the competition before our first league game.

"We will look to organise a couple of bounce games in September, once we get our pre-season work completed, and then, while we always want to do as well as we can in the Betfred, it will give us three good hard games before the league starts.

"I will be looking to keep virtually all of our furloughed players, for they showed last season that they can really compete well in this division, and if we can get the right people to add to what we have then we should be in a decent place for the campaign."

The manager has hinted before that he would like to lay his hands on an in-the-box finisher to add to his strike force of David Cox, Kris Renton and Jordan Allan.

So the new season will begin on Tuesday October 6, with the first Betfred group game and the second and third games will follow on the following Saturday and midweek. The opening league game will be on Saturday October 17 and the last Betfred group tie will take place on Tuesday November 10.