Albion Rovers 'down to bare bones' for Premier Sports Cup opener, says boss

Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid says he’s down to the ‘bare bones’ and needs to sign trialists to boost his squad ahead of Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup opener at home to Livingston.

And the Cliftonhill boss says they wouldn’t have taken part in the NL Cup at Broadwood last weekend, had they known how big a problem they were going to have.

Rovers finished third in the four-team competition, having lost their semi-final 2-1 against hosts Cumbernauld Colts on Saturday but overcame Stirling Albion 3-1 on Sunday, while Airdrie beat Colts 1-0 to take the trophy.

Reid says they were missing seven first-team players, and is concerned that a flurry of fixtures could overload the slim squad he has available.

He said: “We had seven players missing, signed players, for one reason or another, so we had to bring a lot of trialists in.

“In an ideal world we’d probably not have taken that tournament if we knew we had so many players out, especially with two games in two days, which is maybe too much, sometimes.

“If we had a full squad it might have been a bit easier, but we didn’t, and nobody could have foreseen what was going to happen at that stage in pre-season.

“But it was a decent enough work-out for us, we got some minutes into players, and managed to get a look at some trialists.

“A couple of them did themselves justice, some others were not quite at that level, but it’s just trying to see what’s what, and if we can offer them a deal that’s enough to tempt them to come.

“There is a bit of talking to do with some of them that we would like to keep – whether we can is another question.

“But we need to get a few signed in before Saturday, because you can’t pay trialists in the Premier Sports Cup.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do this