Dumbarton manager Stevie Aitken hopes that the opportunity of moving on to play full-time football is enough to tempt players to his team for the new season.

Sons have a reputation of seeing players make the step up to full-time football after spending time at the Rock, with Tom Walsh being the latest example after he signed a two-year deal with Inverness CT.

Aitken admits that the club’s budget has been cut ‘in half’ after relegation, but he told the Reporter of his hopes that players currently searching for a new club will look at the likes of Walsh and see the Sons as a stepping stone to full-time football.

He said: “Tom Walsh is a player we’ve managed to get back into full time which is a great selling point. “It’s a rebuilding job again, as it has been every year.

“I can’t compete with the clubs that can offer bigger wages and full-time football but we have a good reputation for getting players full-time football. We’ll build again.

“The budget’s a big thing when you come down a division.

“There’s a lot of revenue that’s been lost, so the budget has probably been halved compared to what we were working with.

“I’ve met with my own players, first which I like to do before speaking to other players.

“Now we’ve done, that I’ve begun to meet up with players. But the budget has been cut accordingly.”

Aitken let nine players leave last week and offered deals to another six, with the future of others still up in the air.

Sons currently only have two players signed up for the 2018-19 campaign – Craig Barr and Mark Stewart, who signed two-year deals last season – although Aitken says that even their future at the club isn’t so simple.

He did, however, have some more positive news regarding captain Andy Dowie, who is understood to be close to committing to another season at the Rock.

Aitken continued: “There were clauses in [Barr and Stewart’s] contracts that do give them the option to leave.

“I’ve met with Mark Stewart who had a frustrating time at the end of last season with his injuries. It’s a new season now and he’ll recover fully over the summer.

“Hopefully we’ll have him back fit because in the first half of the season he showed up really well. He feels like he has something to prove.

“Craig Barr didn’t indicate that he wants to leave either. If we can keep them then it’s a good base, along with Andy Dowie, who’s close to signing on again.”