St Johnstone are closing in on the signing of former Cambridge United goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov.
The Perth club have held positive discussions with the 26-year-old, who is expected to undergo a medical in the next 24 hours.
Barring any hiccups, the Bulgarian stopper will become Saints’ first signing of the summer.
Gaffer Steven MacLean has spoken of his desire to have two Premiership-quality keepers in his squad.
Mitov, who was No 1 at former club Cambridge, will be targeting the top spot at McDiarmid Park.
Ross Sinclair stands in his way – and the Scotland under-21 man was in fine form as Saints ran out 3-0 winners in last night’s friendly with East Fife.
A strong-looking Saints side were made to work hard by their hosts in the first half at Bayview.
The dynamic between Tony Gallacher and Graham Carey on the left flank looked their most likely path to goal.
But just before the break, Stevie May passed up a golden opportunity to snatch the lead from the penalty spot after Ryan McGowan was chopped down on the right side of the box.
Allan Fleming guessed wrong and dived to his right, but the East Fife keeper kept out May’s ‘straight down the middle’ strike with his legs before comfortably collecting the striker’s headed rebound.
Steven MacLean sent out a completely different team, bar goalkeeper Sinclair, for the second half.
Youngsters change the game
Against an unchanged East Fife, a young Perth side upped the ante, with Joe Ellison going close with a right footed effort just after the restart.
Alex Ferguson then saw a header tipped over the bar after a superb, flowing move.
But the opener was coming and Ali Crawford swept it home at the far post after 15-year-old Fran Franczak cut inside on the right and delivered a pinpoint cross.
Jackson Mylchreest (16) added a second quickly with a neat header as the young Saints continued to outshine their ‘first team’ counterparts’ first half showing.
Callum Booth put some polish on the score line with a 20-yard raker in the dying moments to make it 3-0.
Speaking at full-time, Perth coach Liam Craig hailed manager MacLean for putting his faith in the club’s young players.
He said: “It’s credit to the manager for putting his trust in them.
“The last two, three weeks of pre-season has been a real eye-opener for them.
“Last season, with the squad being so big, they never got involved too much with the first team.
“But they’ve had game time against Falkirk, they’ve had game time at Dunfermline, they had a lot of game time against Partick on Saturday.
“Tonight, they showed they can go and compete at this level and the three goals they scored were incredible.
“We’re really pleased with the second half and it was important in the first half that the senior ones never got any injuries and came through the half fine.”
