Dalbeattie Star boss Eddie Warwick is targeting five new signings in a bid to boost his side’s survival hopes.
Three unnamed players are set to leave the Islecroft club after they followed up their narrow derby loss to Gretna 2008 with a 10-0 hammering at the hands of Caledonian Braves.
And Warwick is hoping to bring in fresh blood as he aims to haul the side off the bottom of the Lowland League, with former Cowdenbeath striker David Cox arriving on Thursday.
He said: “A few players have gone. We’ve decided to clear the decks. We got to a point where we thought we’d go back to a clean slate as we couldn’t go further backwards.
“We were really disappointed with the result at Gretna, where we thought we could get something, then we had injured players who could barely move strapped up to play again two days later against Caledonian Braves.
“There’s a few bodies we might be able to get in but we’ve not got anything concrete at the moment and there’s no guarantees at the moment.
“We probably need to get five players in as we’ve let three go and we’ve stripped the squad back down to a very low number.”
Star were denied a chance to bounce back from their midweek loss when the weather left the Islecroft surface unplayable for Saturday’s home game against Cowdenbeath.
The move caused some upset among their opponents, but Warwick pointed out “water was lying on the pitch” with the majority of other games on grass pitches in the area also falling by the wayside.
Star hit the road this weekend when they take on Rangers B.
And while relishing the occasion, Warwick doesn’t think it’s these sort of games that will define his side’s season.
He said: “We’re excited to play teams like that. You’re in management to pit your wits against the best coaches in the country and some of the best young players in the country.
“It’s fantastic for the boys to play at that level, they should take a lot of out of it. They should be excited and want to put right the wrongs of the last two games.
“It’s a free hit for us as we’re not expected to do anything against these teams, but we do need to get points and get some sort of momentum.
“If the performance is OK and the result isn’t there we’ll take positives from that. We just need to keep building, we need to get players in and batten the hatches down for the final three months of the season and see what we can do.
“If we can put in a few performances against teams round about us that’ll be what decides if we’re going to stay up or not.”
