NONE of the trialists that have been involved in Dumbarton's pre-season so far will sign contracts with the club.

Manager Stevie Aitken revealed Robert Tatar, Joel Kasubandi, Josh Peters, Kieran Gibbons and Daniel Brady were not being offered deals with the club.

One or two new trialists might be involved in the game against Motherwell tomorrow to bulk up the squad.

Aitken said: “None of them will be signing. We’ve made the decision this week, they’ve been in and they’ve done great in terms of their application and attitude but they’re just not what we’re looking for at this present time, so we’ve thanked them all and wished them all the best.

“We’ll focus on Motherwell with the current players we’ve got at the moment with the squad that we’ve got from the last game. We might just bring in one or two just because of the squad size because of the injuries we’ve picked up, so we might do that.”

Andy Stirling, Robert Thomson and Frazer Wright are all carrying minor knocks and will be touch and go for Saturday's fixture, and he revealed Darren Barr could miss the start of the season.

He added: “Andy Stirling has pain in his shins, probably just from the back-to-back games, Robert Thomson the same, he felt his knee a wee bit and Frazer Wright the same so they’ll probably rest up tonight [Thursday] and hopefully be fit for Saturday.

“Darren's had problems with his back. It’s a nerve problem, he just woke up one morning with it and couldn’t move out of the bed. So he is on medication for it, he’s certainly responding to that but he could be missing the start of the season.”

The Sons boss said he might need to bring in injury cover for the 31-year-old if his injury is more serious than first expected.

He said: “We’re fairly happy, we’ve still got Frazer and Gregor, but if it does go on for a longer period of time then getting cover is something we’d have to look at.”

With the clock ticking down to the start of the season, Stevie is most likely to dip into the loan market to get his two remaining signings, but says it has been difficult with club's away for pre-season.

“We've spoken to certain clubs, there’s players that have been offered but they’ve not floated my boat in terms of who it is, but for example Celtic and Rangers are both abroad at the moment, they don’t come back until next week.

“it’s difficult when you’re trying to deal with that but certainly it’s on the radar and it’s like that loans are probably the route we’ll go down to get the remaining players for the squad.

“The league cup’s come very early this year, teams have to get ready much earlier and a lot of teams are still trying to negotiate, so we’re not the only team out there but certainly Forfar game “I’d like one, hopefully two by then, if not by the Forfar game then probably the Dundee game after.”

Aitken said even with the budget reduced from last year, he did not want to panic buy players, and signings must be the right fit for the club.

He added: “There’s players out there, the one’s we’ve been looking at, and the ones we’ve been offered would need to take Dumbarton forward and that’s what I need to look at.

“There’s money still available, it’s just difficult trying to get the right ones to come in. I’m sure in the coming weeks when the market heats up then, and people tend to forget that we’re still early in July, we’ve got a bit a time, you know other clubs have been doing a bit of the same.

“I think the focus is for the first league game, people will be looking at the League Cup but most will be aiming to have their squad settled by the first league game.”