The time of the year when Junior team managers up and down the country are quaking in their boots is now upon us.

How successful the recruitment drives, underway for the past month (or in some cases much longer) have been, are about to be realised as clubs get the green light to officially register their new signings for the 2017/18 season.

It should be pointed out that signing approaches for Junior players whose contracts have not yet expired - it was called tapping in bygone days remains - very much frowned upon by the powers-that-be yet the reality is deals have long since been agreed either by handshakes or through contracts pre-signed and put away in a drawer awaiting the third Saturday in June milestone.

And yes everyone can recall instances when proposed moves have been gazumped by late in the day player ‘changes of mind ‘or more accurately by another club putting better terms on the table.

But these are rare exceptions rather than the norm and the vast majority of players who promise to join another club usually do.

To pretend pre-signings don’t happen is a bit “ostrich” particularly as an even bigger driving force illustrating how the preferred order of comings and goings at Junior level requires to be brought in line with Senior football is the advancement of social media which habitually brings irate and in-the-know supporters onto forums to publicly bemoan the departure of a star turn even though the alleged signing club adamantly refuses to acknowledge any planned dressing room additions until mid-June at the very least.

A perfect case in point is that of erstwhile Clydebank top scoring marksman Nikky Little, who was widely reported to have joined Pollok within days of the Bankies clinching promotion back to the Super Premier Division with a 4-1 defeat of Shettleston on Saturday, May 20, (a game watched by Lok gaffer Tony McInally).

He was also thought to have secured the services of Little’s team-mate Mark Burbridge before he was invited in to pre-season training with Stirling Albion.

However, nobody should assume a switch to Newlandsfield is “dead in the water” just yet given Macca’s affirmed desire to strengthen his playing resources for the new campaign.

He said: "Putting together a 20-strong squad of players has to be our aim in order to mount a credible challenge in the season ahead.

“Up to now nine of our current player pool have signed back up again and I have yet to sit down and have talks with Tam Hanlon and Davie Winters while we are not sure if Gary McStay, who came on board as a stop-gap measure towards the end of the season, has other plans in mind .

“It’s also no big secret we have had a parting of the ways with Ben Lawton, Robbie Winters, Chris Walker , Keiron McAleenan and Michael Daly, who leave with our best wishes for the future as indeed does Darren McLean who had stepped up from the amateur ranks to help us out at the end of season.

“The need to refresh our dressing room is obvious and we have targeted a number of hungrier and pacier players who will thrive on playing for a club of Pollok’s stature.”

The mathematics, if the experienced McStay heads out, has McInally needing to recruit nine newcomers of whom five names are allegedly known - Little, Auchinleck Talbot playmaker Bryan Young,Kilsyth Rangers winger Nikky Prentice, centre-back Craig Buchanan from Rob Roy and striker Adam Forde, whose Kilbirnie Ladeside bosses continue to claim an entitlement to a transfer fee.

The Lok boss added: "Young oozes with ability and is someone I have always rated as one of the best midfielders in Junior football during his time at Auchinleck.

“He is not the biggest physically yet there is a quality and presence about him that allows Butch to take command in games.

Pollok’s rebooting has four positions yet to be filled and circulating Southside whispers mention Burbridge, Stuart McCann (Petershill) Keir Milliken and Martin McGoldrick (Auchinleck) and Sean Fraser (Rob Roy) on a signing radar that would also have included the former Irvine Meadow midfielder Darren Miller but for Macca agreeing to tear up his registration form after the 24-year-old was enticed into stepping back into the Senior ranks with Clyde.

“I was feeling chuffed at getting Darren to put pen to paper but he then telephoned to say Clyde had made a very attractive n offer and I just don’t believe it would have been right to stand in his way” said Macca.

Meanwhile , word from across city reckons beaten Evening Times Champions Cup finalists Glasgow Perthshire have made their first summer signing with the addition of former Clyde defender Ryan Frances from Vale of Clyde.

And newly-installed Irvine Meadow manager Ross Dickson’s signing of lively forward Eddie McTernan (Arthurlie) could prove timely after the Ayrshire club’s top scorer Graham Boyd revealed he is on the verge of moving through to Edinburgh through work commitments.