DUMBARTON manager Gerry McCabe hopes to have at least two new faces in place for Saturday's Third Division promotion battle with Arbroath.

The Sons chief goes into this home clash with his options up front limited after two huge blows.

Top scorer Stephen Dobbie has signed for Queen of the South and giant target man John Gemmell suffered a recurrence of the foot injury that has blighted his campaign in the 4-0 Scottish Cup defeat at Celtic.

And McCabe said: "Obviously losing your top scorer is a blow, but with Stephen being here on loan that was always going to be a possibility.

"However, our need to bring in additional personnel up front has only been heightened by the injury suffered by John.

"He was out for a long time in the first half of the season and maybe we did rush him back a bit.

"But we need to get new faces in and I am working overtime on that. If it is at all possible then I would hope to have two new signings in place for Saturday."

And, with the success of Dobbie's loan move from St Johnstone in the first half of the campaign, McCabe has admitted he may go down that route once again.

He added: "Ideally we want to bring in players from higher divisions and it is more than possible that the best way to bring in superior quality is to go down the loan road again.

"If you look at Stephen, then he has come here and got into double figures and that has now earned him another full-time deal at Palmerston.

"There are more than a few players in the leagues above who would be wise, I think, to come and get a regular game lower down.

"That would get their profiles back rather than warming benches for five months and finding it even harder to get a new club when their current deals are up.

"Dumbarton would be the ideal place for them to do that."