Gary Maley is set to answer Livingston’s goalkeeping SOS by coming out of retirement.
The 39-year-old ended his playing career with a memorable Premiership debut in the final game of last season.
But with Max Stryjek serving a suspension following his red card against Inverness on Tuesday night Maley, now the club’s goalkeeping coach, will put the gloves on once again.
And Lions boss David Martindale admitted he’s in the market for a new goalkeeper following a shaky start to the new campaign from both Stryjek and Russian stopper Ivan Konovalov.
Martindale commented: “I’ve got one keeper available on Saturday. This is where it’s wee bit stupid. Maley will sign to get me over the line for a couple of weeks, but I’ve got to sign him until January.
“I’m not allowed to play a trialist, I’m not allowed to sign an emergency loan keeper. For me, it’s incredible.
“It would be really unprofessional of me to go up to Cove with one keeper and have to run the risk of something happening to Ivan and having to play a centre-half in goals.”
The manager also spoke at length about the current goalkeeping situation at the club, admitting Stryjek’s failure at getting a move away may have impacted his early season form while confessing that Konovalov is struggling to adapt to life outside Russia.
He said: “I’m looking for another goalkeeper. Both have made big mistakes in pre-season and I’m not willing to go into another season without an established number one.
“Both of them have been told in no uncertain terms that I need more from them and they’ve both got more in their locker.
“I don’t think it’ll cool the interest in Max but it maybe won’t help. There were bits and bobs at the end of last season and maybe that’s led to a bit of complacency from Max’s point of view.
“There’s six weeks of the window left and I think there’ll be some panic buying in late August but I would never let what happened to St Johnstone happen here, when you’re losing two or three of your best players on the last day of the window. If I’m going to be doing any business it’ll be done on my terms.”
He added: “Max on his day is a top number one but in the last three or four weeks he’s maybe become complacent because he thought he was going to get a move and it hasn’t transpired.
“But finding a keeper that’s better than Max is very difficult in a free market because on his day he can be a top four keeper in the Premiership. It’s just that at times he can be a bottom two.
“I think he added consistency last season but he’s missing right now. I did expect Max to move, I think there is still an opportunity for that but I’ve got to be looking in the market.
“Agents know that but unfortunately there are probably another two, three Premiership clubs in similar positions that pay four times more money than we can pay.”
Konovalov will start against Cove on Saturday and while Martindale admits it’s an opportunity for him to stake his claim for a permanent starting role, the boss spoke about the Russian’s troubles since arriving in Scotland.
Despite the deal having been agreed weeks before, the former Rubin Kazan stopper was unable to get the paperwork sorted until just a few days before his country’s conflict with Ukraine started.
Martindale commented: “Ivan’s a very good number one but there’s problems back home.
“One example is simple economics. When Ivan arrived a pound got him 120 roubles, now it gets him 60. You don’t need to be rocket scientists to see the wages he sends back home have basically halved.
“His wife and kid are still over there and Ivan’s still adapting to life in Livingston and Scottish football.”
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