EXPERIENCE is something John Hughes admits he’s looking to add to his Pars squad and will explore the option of keeping Mark Connolly.

The 29-year-old joined Dunfermline on loan until January from Dundee United in September and has become a regular at the heart of their defence, making 10 appearances so far.

Following Saturday’s defeat at Hamilton Academical, the Irishman revealed that he would be open to extending his stay at East End, telling the media: “I will take it a step at a time.

“If Dunfermline want to keep me and my options at Dundee United are not open there, I would definitely consider it. I have really enjoyed it, I have really enjoyed working with the manager. They are a great group of boys.

“I’m just desperate from now to 16th January to try and get results.”

Speaking to Press Sport this week, Hughes described Connolly as a “manager’s dream” and said he would explore whether keeping him for longer would be an option.

He also said that he would need some more experienced players in his squad, commenting: “Mark’s been a godsend.

“He’s a manager’s dream and that’s another one we have to look at, what Dundee United’s plans are for him at Christmas. Since I’ve come in, he’s a good professional, he gets the boys going, trains well, demands off them on the training pitch.

“We need that experience. I still think we’re one or two short of experience and Mark certainly brings that. Dowser (Ryan Dow) brings that, (Graham) Dorrans brings that, but we could do with another one or two just to help them out.

“They’re a good bunch. They give me everything that they’ve got, they listen, they try to implement what we’re working on. It doesn’t always happen and what we’re trying to say to them is we can do it. What we want to do, we can do it, you need to believe in each other and trust in each other.”

When asked whether he’d held talks with Connolly about the future, Hughes replied: “Mark’s absolutely different class and, in fact, Mark’s one of the first guys you speak to. I think Mark’s enjoying his football. You’re not wanting to plant that seed, ‘Am I going back, am I staying?’ Just let him play his football. He’s doing very well for us at the moment so it’s the timing in there.

“I’ve got a real sneaky feeling that he doesn’t want to go back to Dundee United and not be playing football. You just leave it now until the timing’s right. I think we’ve got three games until the window opens so just let him get on with it and it’ll take care of itself.”

In the meantime, Hughes wants to see a greater attacking threat from his side as they work to implement his ideas.

They failed to have an effort on target at Hamilton and the manager noted: “We’ve always been in the game but, I’m honest enough, we need to entertain, we need to create more goalscoring chances, get at teams and get after teams a wee bit more. That’s all the stuff we’re doing on the training pitch. I said after the match you look at it, you analyse it, no point, analyse it, gather your thoughts, come in and say right, OK, this is what we need to do, this needs to be improved on, this needs to be better, without ripping the book up and starting again, or you’re back to square one. It’s all game-related what we try and do on the training pitch.”