Highland League: Banks o’ Dee injury update as new signing impresses Paul Lawson

Banks o’ Dee co-manager Paul Lawson has revealed they are still waiting to discover the extent of captain Kane Winton’s knee injury.

The Dee skipper was stretchered off in the first half of Saturday’s 2-0 Breedon Highland League victory against Deveronvale at Princess Royal Park.

However, Winton is still awaiting a diagnosis and Lawson said: “We’re still waiting to find out the extent of the injury.

“It’s not often Kane goes down and straightaway we knew it wasn’t great.

“Everyone knows Kane’s a very important player for us and his absence isn’t ideal on top of the injuries we’ve already had this season.

“But hopefully we’ll get some news on how the knee is in the next few days and we’ll see where we go from there, it’s still swollen at the moment.”

Michael Philipson – who only returned last month from a broken ankle suffered in pre-season – was Winton’s replacement at the weekend, but he was also forced off after getting a knock to the same joint.

However, Lawson hopes he won’t be out of action for long.

He added: “Michael went to block a cross and his ankle took a bit of a hit.

“It’s swollen, but hopefully it will be fine and it won’t keep him out for long.

“When you come back after a long spell out with injury you sometimes get these little setbacks.

“It’s important Michael’s ankle is strong and in a way getting a bit of a knock on it will probably increase Michael’s confidence about how strong his ankle is.

“It’s more frustrating for Michael than anybody because he’s just come back and now he’s got a little setback, but I’m sure he’ll come back even stronger.”

Craig impresses on Dee bow

One positive piece of news for Dee is that they have recruited midfielder Harry Craig on loan from League One side Montrose for the rest of the season.

The 18-year-old was with Brechin City from September until the turn of the year and made his debut for Banks o’ Dee in the victory over Deveronvale.

Lawson said: “It’s good to have brought Harry in, we’ve been trying to get players in given the players we’ve been missing.

“I was impressed with how Harry performed on Saturday and he probably gives us something a little bit different to what we have in that area.

“When I look at our midfielders Mark Gilmour, Michael Philipson and Sam Pugh like to get forward and we’ve been using Nathan Cooney as a deep-lying midfielder breaking up play and he’s been outstanding doing that.

“But I see Harry as someone who can do both, initially on Saturday we used him in a holding role and then we moved him higher up and he showed up well in both positions.

“He gets about the pitch and doesn’t shirk a challenge, it’s good to have him as part of the squad for the rest of the season.”

[Source: Press and Journal]