Thornton Hibs: Boss Craig Gilbert signs trialist striker Mikey Gould until end of season after he nets against St Andrews United

And Gould made an immediate impact for his new team, coming on as a substitute and scoring in Saturday’s 7-1 home loss to St Andrews United in the East of Scotland League second division.

"Mikey played as a trialist, scored and then I got him into my office after the game and asked him if he wanted to sign for us,” Gilbert told the Glenrothes Gazette.

“He said: ‘I’ve had a lot of beatings in my time but I’ve not had a beating like that since I was about 12’.

"He has signed until the end of the season. He holds the ball in well, he’s pacy, wins headers and links play up.

"We didn’t have anybody to replace Chris Ireland – who did all that before he retired – so this could be a younger version of him.”

On Saturday’s heavy loss which leaves Thornton ninth with 28 points from 17 games, Gilbert added: “We gave them five gift goals and it was a bad day at the office for the whole defence. We don’t have any fit defenders.

"We’ve still got four centre halves out but it’s no excuse, we shouldn’t be losing seven goals like that.

"Adam Drummond only lasted four or five minutes before having to come off with a hamstring pull, our central midfielder had to go at centre half and an under-20s guy had to start. St Andrews are decent but they’re not any better than us.

"It’s just numbers that we’ve not got. I’m just lucky that we’ve got cup ties the next couple of weeks so I can just play who’s available.

"You want to win in cups but they’re not the be all and end all, it’s the league that matters.

"We want to get promoted if we can. We’ve got games in hand but we need to start winning games.

"If we don’t get boys back we won’t win games.”

Thornton visit Preston Athletic in the King Cup first round this Saturday with kick-off at 2.30pm.

Glenrothes’ home derby against Burntisland Shipyard in the East of Scotland League first division on Saturday was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

This Saturday sees Glenrothes, fifth with 33 points from 15 games, at home to Kennoway Star Hearts in the league, kick-off 2.30pm.