Deadline Day: 1630hrs

After 31 days of opportunity to strengthen the squad and give us a fighting chance of winning promotion, NFFC have so far made only the one’sexy signing’, in Garath McLeary from Conference giants Bromley.

In the fullness of time, he may well turn out to be the answer to all our woes and will turn into that 20+ goals a season striker we all yearn and crave for. But for the present he’s going to be quite a way off from being in the first team.

So, with only a matter of a few hours left before the window closes and with it the best chance of promotion we’ll get, where do we stand with the bids that have been made?

It looks as though Celtic are going to pip us to the signature of Dundee Utd captain Barry Robson. Dundee have accepted bids from us and the Bhoys. But with the player himself saying he’d prefer a move to Parkhead, it looks as though we’ve missed out there.

The Leon Best saga continues to drag on and looks set to go to the wire. The chances of getting our local hero seem to be slim. Coventry manager Iain Dowie is thin on the ground in the striker department himself and will not sanction the move unless he gets a suitable replacement. They have today rejected a ridiculous bid of £1.25M from us, for a player who cost them £650,000 only six months ago. Both parties are clearly playing hardball over this and it could all go pear shaped for the Reds. Personally, I think that anymore than the £1.25M on offer is pure insanity and for that money we could get a decent striker.

Plan’C’ is no doubt in action and that according to rumour is a fresh bid for Matty Fryatt at Leicester, or Will Hoskins at Watford. Hoskins might be a better option than Best, but with the clock a tickin’ we could lose out on all of them. Other targets that might surprise us yet are Dougie Imrie at Clyde, or the defender David van Zanten at St. Mirren.