PETERSHILL boss Willie Patterson last night sealed a sensational transfer deal by bringing outstanding winger Ciaran McElroy back into Junior football.

The 24-year-old returns on a season-long loan deal after falling out of favour at Queen's Park.

He joined the Spiders two years ago after an amazing debut season in the Juniors with Clydebank where his displays also earned him Junior Scotland recognition.

And the one-time Campsie Black Watch prospect is firmly in the reckoning for a starting slot for today's THXenergy Scottish Junior Cup fourth-round showdown away to Hill O’ Beath assuming there are no last-minute hitches with his reinstatement paperwork

McElroy's attacking talents had put him on the radar of a number of top-flight clubs and Super Premier Division title challengers Rob Roy had been thought to be leading the race for his signature.

But Patterson’s persuasive tongue won the day and the long-serving gaffer was understandably delighted when discussing his latest acquisition.

He said: "Ciaran was in at Petershill as a promising centre-forward back in his Campsie days, but it was only when he joined Clydebank and Budgie McGhie moved him out wide that his talents really blossomed.

“We faced very tough competition to get him on board so I made a point of meeting up with the lad when word reached my ears of his availability and straightaway got the impression he wanted to come and play for Petershill.

“That feeling has only been reinforced by the manner in which he settled into the dressing room at our midweek training session and you can visibly see the other players getting a lift from someone of Ciaran’s abilities coming to the club.

“I’ve high hopes of him being a very exciting player for us, though whether it’s asking too much to expect him to arrive through the door and hit the ground running against Hill O’ Beath will be one of the considerations taken into account when Paul Kelly, Scott Black and myself get down to naming our starting line-up on arrival at Keir Park today.”

Also taking to the road are Ayrshire hopefuls Beith whose manager Johnny Millar does not believe a fourth-round head-to-head against minnows Scone Thistle has handed the Mighty any great advantage.

He said: "I don’t like going in blind against cup opponents yet there has been no opportunity to run the rule over Scone because all of their scheduled games have been postponed ever since the cup draw was made.

“That in itself is disappointing, but the hidden message is their playing surface is not one of the best and a few East Region contacts have confirmed it can be a bit of a leveller so we may have to adapt our preferred passing style to suit.

“It may be a case of getting the ball forward early to our three amigos, Kenny McLean, Andy Reid and Darren Christie which could well work in our favour as there are few better attacking combinations in the game and they are showing signs of a return to form.

“Unfortunately, we are not blessed with options in other areas of the team with Paul Frize having missed training this week with a flu bug on top of our new signing Ian Fisher being unavailable due to a family commitment which we knew about prior to his transfer from Hurlford United.

“And these absences come on top of David McGowan and Jamie Wilson sitting out the tie after picking up suspensions for being red-carded in friendly matches so our 19-man playing squad is going to be severely stretched as things stand.

Millar added: “Nobody at Beith is panicking, however, I don’t see much of an advantage in going up against one of the cup’s no-hopers when you take all the mitigating factors into consideration.”

Pollok, one of the clubs rumoured to have entered into discussions with McElroy, are handicapped by the absence of suspended pair Chris Walker and Alan McKenzie for the journey up to another rank outsider Kennoway Star Hearts

However, offsetting the loss of their services is newcomer Carlo Monti, who is champing at the bit to make his third-time-around debut for the Southside club.

Lok boss Tony McInally said: "We’ve trained and prepared well for the tie even though our efforts to cram in a friendly match have proved fruitless so having such an important game as our first outing in the New Year is not ideal .

“That said, the players appear in the right frame of mind to do what’s required to get us into the last-16 hat.”

Meanwhile, Arthurlie's bid to land McElroy may have come up short, however gaffer Robert Downs has the consolation of fixing up Queen's Park goalkeeping prospect Conor Boyle as well as teenage midfielder Ryan Clark from Dumbarton where former Barrhead No.2 Alan Waddell is on the coaching staff.

Both newcomers could feature when the Lie host the Scottish Cup visit of an in-form Wishaw – just one defeat in their last 11 matches – and out to make a mockery of bookmakers odds cruelly rating them as 6/1 no-hopers.