Toland is unlikely to sign

The 18 year-old played for the Blues during last weekend’s Stena Cup victory and impressed the Blues gaffer. However, as with James Knowles last week, Hamilton isn’t banking on securing the signature of the young starlet.

Toland has recently been released by Newcastle United and Hamilton expects him to continue his career ‘across the water’ in professional football.

“Lee did really well but again we have to keep to our budget,” he said.

“I think he has a few irons in the fire as well. I know that Tommy Wright (St Johnstone Assistant Manager) was talking about coming up to have a look at him at the weekend.

“He could certainly do a job for us no problem. He has a lot of quality on the ball and you can see that he has played professional football. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with him.”

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Davy O’Hare has agreed to remain at the club for a further season. His future had been undecided when he took time to think about the club’s offer of a new contact but, much to Hamilton’s delight, the former Coleraine stopper has now agreed to stay on.

The boss said: “Davy’s signed on again for next season so it’s good to have that competition again for the goalkeeping shirt. He has a lot of experience so he’s a good man to have about the club.”

Hamilton has so far been pleased with the performances of his new signings and is happy with the size of the squad he has at his disposal, although he still hopes to bring in at least one more signing.

“We have a lot of quality throughout the spine of the team now,” he said.

“Andy Kilmartin was unbelievable at the weekend. He’s the type of player that you won’t appreciate how good he is until you see him week-in, week-out.

“Guy Bates held the ball up very well and Sean McCashin was very good too. He played in centre-midfield on Sunday and was good in there. He played there for Nottingham Forest reserves and at right-back too. To be honest, I reckon he could even do a job up front, he’s that good on the ball!

“We had about 20 lads playing at the weekend so it’s a good size of a squad to work with and hopefully a couple of others to come in as well.

“There’s definitely one player coming in and hopefully there’ll be one more on top of that as well.”