"I had an agreement with the club in question, but the striker decided to stay where he was.

"I was trying to bring in a bit of experience as our numbers are very limited.

"I wanted to bring in a striker to take the burden off John Gemmell. There is a lot of expectation on him and he is the only mainline striker we have at the club."

Steven will lead his men into a home clash with Berwick Rangers this Saturday, with that elusive first league win the target.

"Berwick will be a difficult prospect as they sit second in the division, but we can take positives out of the Stranraer game.

"I have a number of players who are looking sharper now that they have played a few games.

"Fraser Milligan has hit the ground running brilliantly and John Gemmell is getting fitter.

"We will look for a win against Berwick. There is no reason why we can't beat any team in the division and that is what we will go out and try to do."

Chris Hegarty is suspended for one more game, while Sean Fleming and Jamie Collier remain on the injured list.

Fleming started his Montrose career very well, but after playing only five games he was sidelined with back and hamstring injuries.

Collier tore his Achilles tendon pre-season and has yet to play for the club.

"I'd love to have Sean back, but it is just a question of waiting. Jamie is coming on well, but he is still a couple months away."

Montrose suffered another injury blow on Tuesday, when defender Gordon Pope broke his foot in training, his third such break in the space of six months.

Speaking immediately after a frustrating 1-1 draw with Stranraer, the manager said: "That should have been our day. We had enough chances to win three games.

"For my chance late on it was a great ball in but I was never quite reaching it and I put it over the bar at full stretch.

"Gemmell, Nicol and Maitland all had chances which didn't go in.

"We have only lost one of our last five games, but we need to turn draws into wins.

"There had to be better marking at their goal but that is football. Stranraer ran from deep so it was not offside. There was a guy coming back, but it was the old debate about not interfering with play.

"It was a great ball in for Sean Anderson's goal.

"One goal ought to have been enough at home. We certainly had enough chances and it was one-way traffic towards the end.

"We are playing some decent stuff. Fraser Milligan has done exceptionally well over the last three weeks playing out of position and John Gemmell is looking a lot more like himself."