Hitman Aidan Smith has joked he and Scott Hooper are stuck together “like glue” with the duo having left Annan Athletic for Peterhead this summer.

Both Smith and Hooper are from Dumfries and started their respective careers at Queen of the South before being released from Palmerston on the same day two years ago.

They have spent the last two years at Peter Murphy’s Annan in Scottish League Two and will join forces again at Peterhead for the 2019/20 season in League One, where they will also play alongside former Gretna, Carlisle United and Celtic Nation keeper Greg Fleming, after Peterhead won the League Two title last season.

"Everywhere he goes, I seem to go," Smith said.

"We started at Queens together – he was in the year above me – then [we] both got up to the first-team at the same time. We got released at the same time, signed for Annan together and have now signed for Peterhead.

"I think we might even be second cousins, as well.

"There’ll be a company car of four or five of us coming up the road, for training and games. The travelling isn’t something that really fazes me. I’m just excited."

The 22-year-old admits it has been a struggle at times to adjust to part-time football at Annan after he left school to pursue his dream of being a professional footballer.

He told The Press and Journal: "I left pretty much without any education to go into football.

"Trying to find a job wasn’t easy. Luckily the Annan captain, Peter Watson, gave me a job a few weeks before the season in his plumbing business, so, hopefully, I can get an apprenticeship.

"I didn’t think I’d do anything other than football until I got released [from Queen of the South]."

While Smith netted 23 goals in 74 matches for the Galabankies in his time with the club, it was Hooper who was named Players’ Player and Directors’ Player of the Year at Athletic’s end-of-season awards.

Annan, meanwhile, will host Stranraer in their first pre-season friendly ahead of their competitive 2019/20 campaign tomorrow (7.30pm kick-off).

Murphy’s men then play Linlithgow Rose on July 6 in another friendly, before Betfred Cup clashes against Dumbarton, Queen of the South, Greenock Morton and Motherwell.