The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cardle boost for Pars’ bid to secure squad
Dunfermline: Winger signs new two-year deal
Joe Cardle last night set his sights on helping Dunfermline return to the Premiership after penning a new two-year deal with the League One champions.
The 29-year-old’s agreement hands manager Allan Johnston a massive boost in his bid to keep together the squad that clinched the title and promotion back to the Championship in style last month.
Meanwhile Ben-Richards Everton and Jason Talbot both signed a one-year extension.
Cardle was this week named on the short-list for the PFA Scotland player of the year award for League One, along with team-mate Faissal El Bakhtaoui, and has proved instrumental in this season’s success.
However, having dropped down two divisions last summer to rejoin the Fifers after an unhappy spell with Ross County in the top-flight, the former Port Vale, Airdrie United and Raith Rovers winger has set the club new and ambitious goals after committing his future to the East End Park outfit.
“The discussions have been going on for a couple of weeks but I’m delighted it’s all signed now and we’ve come to an agreement,” he said.
“I’ve now got another two years to try and get Dunfermline back into the Premiership.
“I’m sure the rest of the boys will follow on. These negotiations take time but, hopefully, we can keep the team together after we did so well this season.”
The trio join Michael Paton, David Hopkirk, Ryan Williamson, Lewis Martin, Sean Murdoch and Cammy Gill in penning new deals with Dunfermline in recent weeks, and Michael Moffat is convinced the Pars can make a major impact on next season’s Championship if the current squad stays together.
The striker has revealed he is keen to remain at East End Park to make the step up himself following talks with Allan Johnston.
With all of the first-team squad that stormed to the League One title coming out of contract this summer, the Pars have so far managed to re-sign seven for life in the second-tier next term.
He firmly believes Dunfermline could be eyeing another promotion this time next year if they get their recruitment right in the coming weeks.
He said: “I’ve had a brief chat with the manager and I’d love to stay, but it’s up to him at the end of the day.
“Hopefully we’ll speak more over the next couple of weeks and we can get it sorted.
“I’d love to stay and have a go at the Championship with the boys.
“He said he was keen for me to stay but there was no deal as such.
“We didn’t speak about numbers and figures.”
Dunfermline face their penultimate challenge of the season this afternoon when they travel to face Airdrie before finally getting their hands on the League One trophy after their final- day encounter with Peterhead next weekend.
They suffered a rare, and heavy, loss in going down 4-1 to Stranraer last Saturday but Moffat insists there should be no complacency in the Pars ranks as they complete a successful campaign.
“Even though we’ve won the league, we don’t want to be losing games, especially not by that margin, so hopefully we can bounce back against Airdrie,” he added.
“Boys that maybe haven’t had that much of a chance this season have been given a wee bit more game-time and they’ll have a point to prove to the manager as well.”