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Summer signing Leighton McIntosh says he’s loving life at Balmoral Stadium.

Striker Leighton, who joined us last month after leaving Welsh club Wrexham, was speaking after impressing in our narrow closed doors friendly defeat by Championship side Dundee. The 27-year-old also netted twice in our 4-2 victory over Brechin City in our previous friendly encounter ahead of our first League One campaign.

Leighton said: “Playing for Cove has been as enjoyable as I had expected to be. The last few weeks have let me see the whole set up at the club and I have to say it’s impressive. The facilities at Balmoral Stadium are fantastic and the training has been brilliant but tough.”

“I knew that would be the case with the latter because I worked with Tam Ritchie (Fitness Coach) when we were together at Dundee and he’s excellent at his job. He’s managed to get us all in good shape in a short space of time, which you could see evidence of in both games.”

“It’s still pre-season, so I imagine he will have a lot more running for us to do, which is fine. We all want to be as fit as we can possibly be by the time the season starts.”

Leighton previously played with several of the Cove Rangers squad when they were together at Peterhead and he admits that’s been a big help as he adjusts to returning to playing in Scotland after his spell down in Wales.

“That was a big factor behind me grabbing the offer to sign for Cove,” said Leighton.

“I knew I would be joining a club that already had a squad of pretty talented players. I was also able to contact a few of them to get an idea of what the set-up was like and how they enjoyed playing for the club and the manager.”

“It’s always good to see familiar faces when you go to a new club and having so many at Cove really has been a massive help. Now it’s is a case of getting to know the rest of the guys at the club and getting up to speed with the way the manager wants us to play.”

“I like to play on the shoulders of defenders and get in behind defences and the manager has been encouraging me to do that, which is great. Hopefully I can continue to improve and be the best I can be as far as fitness goes by the time we finish our pre-season build-up and that I’m able to take that into our league campaign.”

Dundee ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a header from skipper Paul McGowan five minutes from the end in what was a closely contested encounter at Balmoral Stadium.

Dundee keeper Calum Ferrie was forced to make outstanding first half saves from skipper Mitch Megginson and Jordon Brown to keep things level.

Ferrie also made a brilliant diving save to deny Jamie Semple the opener in the second period. We then had to play the final 15 minutes with 10 men when Adam Livingstone had to go off injured and we had already used all of the permitted substitutes.

Despite losing, Leighton enjoyed the run out against a side expected to be among the main contenders for the Championship.

Leighton said: “I  feel we competed well with Dundee and were very unfortunate to lose the game. We also played some good stuff in the previous match, things have gone well so far.”

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