Hughes in the hunt for more new recruits

Published on Friday 16 May 2008 10:32

FALKIRK manager John Hughes has secured the signatures of the experienced trio of Jackie McNamara, Lee Bullen and Neil McCann over the course of the past few days but made it clear that there may well be more new faces before next season.

"It's great to have such experienced players on board," he said, "especially as we're losing Jack Ross to St Mirren in the summer, but I'm still looking around and it may well be that I add to the squad again during the close season. One or two players are out of contract shortly and there will be new deals on the table for them but I respect the fact that they may want to see if anything better comes along.

"Having said that, if they delay signing and I bring new players in then there's no guarantee that the same deals will be available so there are a lot of important decisions to be made over the next few weeks."

Falkirk head to Rugby Park tomorrow for their last game of the season, their clash with Kilmarnock falling into the "meaningless" category as the race for seventh place in the table ended on Tuesday night when Hearts lost 1-0 to Gretna.

"It's pleasing to finish seventh," continued Yogi, "although I really wanted a place in the top six. Tomorrow's game may be meaningless in some ways but we'll be going there looking for victory as we always do. It would be good to finish with a win as it would take us to the same points as last season. In addition, the game may give me the opportunity to blood one or two of my young players and give them valuable experience in a non-pressure situation."

Recent debutant Chris Mitchell, meanwhile, has been called up to the Scotland under-21 squad for next week's international against Norway, the 19-year-old joining fellow Bairns Scott Arfield and Tam Scobbie, whose talents have been similarly recognised.