ALLAN JOHNSTON has said that the Pars’ board’s ambition to challenge for promotion in the Championship made agreeing a new contract an easy decision.

The Pars boss was “delighted” to put pen to paper on a new two-year deal on Tuesday afternoon and confirmed that assistant Sandy Clark and first team coach John Potter are also close to agreeing fresh terms with the club.

Captain Andy Geggan also signed on to provide a further boost to a Pars support already buoyed by Joe Cardle, Ben Richards-Everton and Jason Talbot extending their East End stays on Friday.

Each member of the squad has now been spoken to over their future and Johnston, who was afforded a civic reception with his squad in recognition of their title win, has a burning desire to push towards the top end of the Championship next term.

He told Press Sport: “I’ve really enjoyed my time here and it’s a good fit for me. I wanted to stay here so I’m delighted it’s done and dusted now and we can concentrate on getting the team sorted out.

“You can see the club’s ambitious; you just need to talk to the board of directors, especially Ross, to see the vision he’s got for the club and where he wants to take it. I want to be part of that so it’s perfect.

“It’s been a great season with loads of positives and next season is going to be another massive challenge but there’s no reason why we can’t be successful again. We’ve got a lot of good players but we’ll probably need to strengthen a bit as well. It’s great to get the players that we have on board and they want to be here, be successful and part of it. They realise the potential this club’s got, how big it is and that we’re not just going up to the Championship to make up there numbers; we want to be challenging up the the top.

“Obviously there’s a budget there, which is the right way to do it because we can’t live outwith our means, but everything’s in place. We know exactly what we’ve got and what we need to do.”

The manager continued: “We’ll have round about the same type of numbers in terms of the squad; the last thing you want is too many players because when they’re not playing it becomes difficult. We’d rather have quality rather than quantity.

“It’s a big club so you get loads of people who want to come and join us but we’ve got a lot of good players here already so we’ve just got to make sure we sign the right ones. Obviously a guy like Faiss would be a massive signing if we managed to keep him, and we’re trying our very best, but it’s an ongoing process and it changes day to day. We can only try.

“There’s not many jobs where you’ve got the size of club and the potential to be successful. You’ve got the right set of circumstances as well here with the board of directors and the supporters all wanting to pull in the one direction. You can see the amount of people who help out at the club; they are desperate for the club to be successful as well and that all works in my favour.”