ATHLETIC manager John Hughes is hoping members of his squad can follow Kai Kennedy's lead and give him selection problems by impressing in a bounce match.

This afternoon, the Pars have been due to travel to Livingston to play a practice match, in which the likes of Lewis Martin - working his way back to fitness while out of contract - Nikolay Todorov, Kevin O'Hara and Craig Wighton were expected to play.

It is the second midweek in three that Hughes has organised such a match, having done so at the beginning of the month against a youthful Hibernian side.

In that game, Kennedy impressed in a 4-1 win, and subsequently started at Hamilton, and against Queen of the South on Saturday, where he scored and set up two in a 3-3 draw.

Speaking to the press yesterday (Monday), Hughes said: "You need to keep playing football. It's competition for places.

"I've had one or two knock on my door, which I expected, you'll get your chance, show me what you've got.

"A lot of them are talented footballers but we need to be better when we're against the ball and not got the ball.

"I don't bother about results. It's always nice to win a football match, but I'm watching individuals, and even looking towards Saturday, there might be one or two places up for grabs. If it was me, I'd be in there giving it everything I've got.

"Kai was outstanding against Hibs and I think if you saw Kai on Saturday, it's getting the ball to him. We need to get the ball to him. He's a match winner.

"He got a lift from it and you can see he's got a wee spring in his step at this moment in time, and he's a nice boy to work with. He's a real, talented, talented footballer, but he needs to get the ball in the area where he can get right at you.

"I said that after the match; he was our match winner, get it to him. That's one, and there's one or two others that I'm looking forward to seeing.

"I think that, since I've come in here, one or two have been pigeon-holed. So we've changed it; I'm saying well, you're a footballer, you should be able to play anywhere.

"It's everybody in the squad. I'm short of a right winger. I've not got a right winger at the moment and that experience of Ryan Dow playing in there.

"Kyle (MacDonald) is a right back, wing back, being asked to play right wing. He's done very very well for us; he's everything you want in your club in terms of attitude and all this stuff. If it's not him, it's Dowser. Dowser would rather play in the middle with that experience, so we've not got that Kai Kennedy as a right winger, that can unlock the door.

"It's something that we're looking at. Maybe sometimes it's square pegs in round holes and I'm hoping the fans understand that. That's why we're playing practice matches; can somebody do that for us?

"That's why we're doing it, plus the fitness levels. It keeps them ticking over and it's a great exercise. Hopefully we can keep doing that right from now until the end of the season because, if somebody has a great game, like Kai Kennedy at Hibs, you're just saying he needs to play in my team. They put themselves right in the team."

On Martin, Hughes continued: "Lewis is going to play a part tomorrow.

"I don't think he's got 90 minutes in him; we really have to watch him. Even last week, we had to take him out of training for a couple of days, just to rest him up for this game coming. We just have to watch what we're doing but he's going to take part tomorrow, so he's another one we'll have a look at.

"And then there's one or two that are sitting in the stand, obviously not happy. I can understand that but you're picking your team and substitutions accordingly."