A TRIO of Morton players have been told they will not be offered new contracts when their deals expire this month.

Craig Reid, Stephen Stirling, and Jake Nicholson were all left out of Saturday’s match squad and have been informed they will not be kept on.

Manager Kenny Shiels is expected to add Garry O’Connor, Brad Gascoigne, and Ben Sampayo to his squad this week and has moved to free up funds to facilitate the news signings.

Defender Reid is still contracted to Ton and attended the defeat at Dumbarton, but will exit when his deal expires in two weeks.

Former Spurs man Nicholson left the club on Friday and midfielder Stirling is also believed to have departed.

Morton assistant manager David Hopkin confirmed: “The manager has spoken to them. It’s a difficult one because they were the boys who were out of contract this month.

“It’s not down to their ability or anything they’ve done. It’s just that they’ve been victims of circumstance.

“Before the gaffer can bring anybody else in, I think he has to move players on. So rather than it being about those players’ ability, I think it was just because their contracts were up in January.

“The manager is obviously working on bringing in new players behind the scenes and we’re hoping that will make a difference.

“Personally with that side of things I’ll not know until the gaffer comes in and tells me he’s got people coming in. He deals with that side of things.

“There are three or four weeks left now to make signings and the manager will be working hard to bring players in, and we can hopefully start scoring some goals.” Posting on his Twitter account, Reid said: “I’ve not been released. [I’ve] got two weeks left on my deal and I won’t be staying on afterwards.” When contacted by the Tele and asked if he had played his final game for the club, Englishman Nicholson said: “Yes. I left on Friday.”