HOME friendlies against two English Blue Square Premier sides have been pencilled in for pre-season - but the date for the Renfrewshire Cup Final remains a concern.

Morton will host Oxford United and Crawley Town, managed by Ton boss Davie Irons" former Ayr United team-mate Steve Evans - in July.

These games will come after kickstarting their pre-season fixtures with a trip to Galabank to face Scottish Third Division newcomers Annan Athletic.

The Telegraph understands it was hoped to play the derby match with St Mirren on 18 July, but there are doubts as to whether the Paisley club will be available on this date.

Saints finish their SPL campaign this weekend, but may well be away at a pre-season training camp on the desired date.

Still, Ton boss Davie Irons is looking forward to putting his team through their paces ahead of competitive football starting with the Challenge Cup on 25 July.

He said: 'They are all just pencilled in at the moment as there are one or two things still to be worked out.

'But I am delighted at possibly taking Morton to play my old club Annan now they are a league side.

'I keep in touch with Derek Townsley and had said I would try to fit them in.

'They had a good first season and will be looking to improve again. For us, it may well be our first pre-season match.

'Crawley made contact last year, they are staying in Inverclyde and are looking for a game.

'They are a full-time professional side so it will be a decent game and likely to be earlyish in their pre-season preparations.

'From our point of view, sorting out the pre-season is all about getting games which will build up our match fitness and be of a decent standard.

'Looking at the financial side of things, the Conference is on a par if not better than the First Division in Scotland 'In terms of reputation it is growing all the time and with the television coverage from Setanta their exposure is better too.

'Speaking to Steve, he thinks the top teams there could play in the First Division easily and I don"t think there is too much in it to be fair.' With three friendlies and one less-than-friendly final to be confirmed, Irons admits it is unlikely there will be many more matches scheduled for fear of causing any player burnout.

He added: 'We might have a couple of other closed doors games, but not much more as we will be working with a squad of 18 so we have to be careful with how many games we play.

'Last year we had a spate of injuries, with guys like Stewart Greacen and Ryan Harding missing, and that contributed to a poor start to the season, so we have to balance that against the number of games we play.'