Clark pleased by signs of progress

State of squad pleasing chairman

Raith chairman Bill Clark believes the club are just three players short of having a full squad for next season.

Rovers bolstered their roster on Thursday with the addition of striker Chris Duggan and goalie Robbie Thomson, who were at East Fife and Falkirk respectively last season.

Others such as Kyle Benedictus and Iain Davidson have agreed new deals to stay at Stark’s, although some have decided to opt for pastures new despite being offered new deals.

Those included midfielder/coach Scott Robertson who has now been named Dundee United Under-18 coach, with the former Scotland international also deciding to hang up his boots.

However, overall, Clark is pleased with how the summer rebuild is progressing.

The chairman said: “It looked a wee bit slow at the end of the season and people were wondering what was going on.

“But we have now signed the club captain Kyle Benedictus again, we have signed Iain Davidson and Euan Murray.

“They were stalwarts of our defence last year.

“In addition to that, there are one or two young boys coming up like (Jamie) Watson and Dave McKay.

“We have just signed a new goalkeeper. He is a very good goalkeeper and has played a lot of games.

“We are very hopeful he will fit in well with the defence that we have.”

Clark added: “Midfield and up front is where we are looking at the moment.

“But we have a new forward on his way from Australia (Duggan) and we have retained Lewis Vaughan for the second year of his contract.

“We still have (Liam) Buchanan who we hope will regain his form this season so there are players there who are the nucleus of a team.

“I would reckon at the moment we are three players short of having a full squad.

“Sometimes it is not best to be in early in the transfer window.

“If you are a bit more cautious and wait and see, there are a number of good players who don’t find a club until very late on.

“We are still hopeful of picking up a couple of good players from that over the next couple of weeks.”

Picture: SNS. Scott Robertson, seen up against Alloa’s Jon Robertson, has retired from the game.