ALLAN Moore has invited English-born Japanese midfielder Ryan Hirooka to attend pre-season training with a view to winning a contract, the Tele can reveal.

Hirooka, who holds dual nationality, started his career with Eastbourne Borough and had spells with Brentford, Ramsgate, Lewes, and Portuguese fourth tier outfit Gandara.

More recently the 23-year-old had been plying his trade in the Japanese third tier, making 16 appearances for the reserve side of J-league 2 club JEF United Chiba. Hirooka contacted Ton boss Moore towards the end of last season and impressed enough over a short trial spell to be invited back to try and earn a permanent deal for next term.

Moore told the Tele: "We've a boy called Ryan Hirooka coming in for pre-season training. He's English-Japanese and plays wide on the right side of midfield.

"He sent me through his CV at the end of last season and was quite willing to pay his own way so we invited him in.

"He's roughly 6ft, has a good turn of pace and was technically good. He trained with us for the last 10 days of the season and looked not bad but we didn't get to see him in a game because he was playing in Japan last year, which made it difficult to get clearance.

"I did go to see him in a game for Partick Thistle against the British Police, but the pitch they played on was a disgrace, it was a mud heap, so I didn't want to judge him on that."