ALLAN JOHNSTON has praised his “brilliant” players for their superb start to the season – and has hinted his recruitment may be over for now.

High-flying Pars made it seven points from nine with Saturday’s win over Falkirk, ensuring they remain closest to early pacesetters Dundee United.

As well as that, Dunfermline have smashed in an astonishing 21 goals in just five home league and cup games to serve notice of the firepower that could provide a promotion challenge.

The arrival of Andy Ryan last week from Airdrie brought the number of summer signings made by Johnston to six and, while former loan midfielder John Herron was again in the stands to watch the Bairns victory, the Athletic boss told Press Sport: “We’d only bring somebody in if it’s the right player. We can still bring someone in if we need to and, whether it’s now, in January or whenever, we’ll have a look.

“But you can see we’ve got good players and we’re not just going to bring somebody in for the sake of bringing somebody in.

“We’ve made a great start; a few of the boys are flying just now and are probably playing at the top of their game. When you look at the competition we’ve got now in the forward areas, we’ve got people who can score goals and, over the course of the season, you’re going to go through wee patches where maybe the strikers aren’t scoring.

“That’s where we’re lucky we’ve got that much competition. We’ve got people who can play in a number of positions like Lewis (Martin); big Jean (Yves M’Voto) is still waiting for his chance and then there’s players in the middle of the park like Aaron Splaine, who I thought was really good against Arbroath.

“There’s a lot of boys there who are desperate for their chance and to come in and make an impact. I think that pushes the rest of the players on as well.”

Athletic’s impressive beginning to the campaign is in sharp contrast to last season where, after an opening day win over this weekend’s opponents Dumbarton, they lost five league games in a row and took until October to accumulate the number of points they’ve already accumulated.

Johnston continued: “The boys have been brilliant and their work-rate’s been incredible. I think Peter Houston said that after the game (on Saturday), talking about the pace with which we played and our workrate.

“We’re a good team when we play like that and we’ve got to remember that’s how we get the results and not let up in the way we’re playing.

“Every single player in there’s played a part and not just in attack. You forget about the defensive side sometimes because we’re scoring so many goals but we’ve looked solid.

“That’s probably been the biggest turnaround over the second half of last season and the start of this season; last year it was the other way round when you looked at the goal difference.

“At the start of last season I just think we lost too many cheap goals, and then you’re chasing games. I think we still had good players last year but now we’ve got more striking options, more people who can score goals and we look more solid defensively. It’s a good mixture.”

He added: “It’s going to be a really difficult one at the weekend. Dumbarton will make it really difficult; they’re probably going to sit and defend and hit on the counter so we’ve got to deal with that.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do the ugly side of the game. We have to make sure we win the battle, win our tackles and the second balls, and hopefully then our good players will do what they do.”

Meanwhile, it’s hoped Nicky Clark will be given the all-clear from a specialist this week to move towards a return to full training.