Manager Post Livingston

02/07/16: AJ - "The squad is really really short just now and we need to bring in players quite quickly."

Allan Johnston gave his thoughts after the 5-1 win over Livingston in a pre season friendly at the Toni Macaroni Arena:-

"You are always happy when you score goals. They were really good goals, some good crosses into the box, good finishing. I think that will do the boys a world of good, give them confidence going into the season.

"You know what it is like pre season, the grass was a wee bit long as well so sometimes it is hard to pass it but I thought the boys played really well, there was a lot of good stuff. Still we can improve and get that wee bit sharper but you cannot complain too much when you score five goals."

Asked if he was getting close to knowing what his strongest starting eleven was going to be AJ joked:-

"We don`t have that many players anyway, it is really tight and obviously we are still short of players. We have a couple of injuries just now (David Hopkirk and Michael Paton) and we probably need to bring in two or three as well. The squad is really really short just now and we need to bring in players quite quickly."

Asked if he had targets in mind the Pars manager replied:-

"There always are but it takes time. It is about money as well and it takes time to get the right players in. They are obviously looking at their options and as I have said before we are not just going to bring in players for the sake of bringing them in. We have to wait and make sure that we bring in the right type to improve the team we have got."

Allan Johnston went on to praise the contribution made by some of his players who looked well up for the game even this early in pre season:-

"You can see that we have good players. Guys like Joe Cardle - he is untouchable when he plays like that. Some of his skill today was outstanding. Obviously it was good for Gav (Reilly) who has just joined here to get a couple of goals as well. I thought he took them really well and was unlucky not to score a couple of others as well.

"There were a lot of good signs and we just have to make sure that we improve every game."

Asked the reason behind using only two subs in a pre season friendly while Livingston used a squad of around 18, AJ answered:-

"We have a game on Tuesday (v Clyde) so if you were not playing 90 minutes today, the majority of them will play 90 minutes on Tuesday. It is important that they start getting 90 minutes under their belts. They have already played 45 and 65 minutes but they need to get used to playing matches."

The Trialist played just sixteen minutes at the end of the match and the manager commented:-

"To be fair I had said that to Mark (Beck) before the game anyway but he was still keen to come. I was delighted that he wanted to come in the first place, he is really keen to come so we will just need to wait and see what happens."

Seventeen year old PJ Crossan is reported to be nearing joining Celtic but AJ said:-

"I don`t think that it is over the line yet. I think it is getting close, we will just have to wait, it is one of those things that takes time. He is a good young player and obviously we will be disappointed to lose him but that happens sometimes."

It was confirmed that the team for Tuesday night`s match against Clyde would comprise of under 20s players, trialists and first team players in need of more game time.

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