Manager on signing Marc McAusland

24/09/15: Manager has option to play Big Mac alongside Big Ben

Given the way defenders have been dropping out of the Dunfermline squad with injuries manager Allan Johnson was pleased to be able to sign someone of the quality of Marc McAusland. He told the website:-

"He has played the majority of his career in the Premier League so he brings a bit of experience with him. At 27 he is at a good age as well so hopefully that will benefit the squad as a whole and the back four especially.

"He is not old, he still has a lot of ambition left in him and he is young enough to go and do well in his career. He is a good type and he was at Queen of the South when I was there as a player. He was only a young lad and you can see how much he has improved over the last few years at St Mirren.

"He is a good size and you like your defenders to be aggressive in the air and obviously win their headers. Lewis Martin and Ben Richards-Everton have been doing well but we have been a bit light in numbers defensively.

"He is good at communicating which is one of the things that we probably have to improve on. It brings a wee bit of competition again for places and that is what you are wanting. Nobody is guaranteed to play.

"It is a relief to have more defensive cover now because when you lose guys like Callum Fordyce who was a good organiser and Ryan Williamson as well then they are always going to be a big loss. It was important that we brought in players who can help us improve with them missing.

"You can see that just a couple of injuries like Shaun Rooney and Jason Talbot makes us really struggle in defence options. People ended up playing out of position so it is good to have the option to bring somebody like Marc in."

The manager recognises that he doesn't want too many players and feels that "the squad is tight knit with good cover in the majority of positions, so for now I think that is probably us!"

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