ALLAN JOHNSTON has cooled his interest in Slovakian trialist Alan Kováč but is taking a look at former Falkirk hitman Farid El Alagui.

The Pars boss is anxious to add striking options to his squad to give support to Michael Moffat and Gavin Reilly and has taken the 31-year-old French-born Moroccan on trial.

After drawing a blank in the derby defeat to Raith Rovers, Johnston admits that he’s “not got enough options” in attack and although the 23-year-old Kováč netted a double in a bounce game with Rovers last week, he said that he was looking at alternative options.

That has paved the way for El Alagui, who left Hibernian in the summer, to try to win a deal and he scored during Tuesday’s under-20s win at St Johnstone after featuring as a trialist.

Although his stint with the Hibees was disrupted by a ruptured Achilles tendon, he scored seven goals in 21 appearances at Easter Road and also hit 27 during his one season with Falkirk in 2011-12.

Johnston told Press Sport: “We’ve got another trialist in just now as with Alan I don’t think we’re going to go any further.

“We’re looking at other options so we’ll see what happens over the coming week but we know we need to bring in another striker because we’ve not got enough options.

“We can’t just rely on a couple of guys week-in, week-out; there’s got to be competition and there will be injuries and suspensions.

“On Saturday, we created enough opportunities and got into some really good positions, but it was just that final pass or wee bit of quality that was lacking in the final third.

“That’s what we need to get back to and having that wee bit of composure to open up teams and get goals but they’ll come.

“With the creative players we’ve got we’d usually be at least working the keeper more and we definitely need to have more shots from outside the box.

“With the amount of possession and good areas we were in, we’ve got to make sure there’s an end product but we’re not far away.”

Johnston admitted he was disappointed with the goals his team conceded on Saturday and said that they must learn quickly if they are to return to winning ways.

His former employers Queen of the South come calling on Saturday and he continued: “We’ve just got to work even harder now and maybe it’s a wee bit of a reality check.

“When you look at goals you can always analyse and say we should’ve done this or done that but there was a lot of things we need to improve on. The final ball is what makes the difference and we never had it on Saturday. We were the better team for the majority of the game and that’s the frustrating part but the result is what counts.”

Nat Wedderburn returned to training on Monday but Johnston reported he still had swelling on his ankle, so his fitness is being monitored ahead of Saturday, while Sean Murdoch is set to remain on the sidelines for another couple of weeks.

There was good news for 17-year-old defender Stuart Morrison, who was called into Scotland’s under-19 squad for two friendlies with Greece in Athens on September 3 and 5.

Meanwhile, the club have confirmed that former striker Rab Stewart has died at the age of 54.

The Airdrie-born player began his career with the Pars in 1981 and scored 17 goals in 79 appearances, the most famous of which came against Rangers in a 1984 Scottish Cup tie. The Second Division part-time Pars took a shock lead at Ibrox and only two goals in the final nine minutes stopped them from producing one of the cup’s biggest shocks.