And, as well as suiting him, he believes the move will also serve former Aberdeen and Ross County man Soutar well.

“The situation we are in means we needed another keeper and I did not want to keep asking (coach) Rab Geddes to go on the bench or be scratching around for a trialist each week for the next month,” he said.

“Soapy has helped us out already this season and I know he is someone we can rely on if we need him, so getting him in suits us.

“From his point of view, he is getting the chance of a game and, at the very least, training properly on a daily basis, and that will give him a better chance of getting fixed up somewhere come January.”

While Douglas could be back in three weeks and Bullock will only miss one game if next week’s appeal against the red card fails, there was no question of Soutar signing up for as little as a month, as Jocky explained.

“As soon as he signs a contract, he is not allowed to move elsewhere before the transfer window opens in January, so there was no way I would have offered him less than to the end of the year.”

Equally, Jocky did not want to bring young keeper John Gibson back from his loan to Elgin City.

“I signed Gibby for the future and I see him as a potential first-team keeper down the line, but he is not ready yet and I want him getting first-team experience out on loan.”

Meanwhile, it has now been confirmed that, although there is no broken bone, striker Colin McMenamin has hurt ankle ligaments and will be out for up to seven weeks.

“The damage is severe and that’s a blow. He may not have scored as many goals as he would have liked, but Colin has been playing very well this season and we’ll miss him.”

The injuries and the taxing 120 minutes against the Dons on Tuesday meant that, even close on 48 hours after the final whistle, as the focus switched to First Division leaders Ross County’s visit on Saturday, the players did only light work in training today.