ATHLETIC have completed their second signing in less than 24 hours after announcing the arrival of former Scotland midfielder Graham Dorrans.

The 34-year-old, who had been training recently with one of his old clubs, Dundee, has penned a two-year contract at East End.

He follows the acquisition of ex-Rangers youth Rhys Breen, who was confirmed as a Pars player last night after leaving Ibrox.

Dorrans had been linked with a move to Dunfermline and boss Peter Grant, who worked with him at West Bromwich Albion, has moved to bolster his midfield ahead of the Championship kick-off this weekend.

After beginning his career with Livingston, the 12-times capped Dorrans moved to the Hawthorns in 2008 and spent seven years with the Baggies, during which time he made 189 appearances across six Premier League seasons, and one Championship campaign.

In 2015, Dorrans moved to Norwich City, initially on loan, and won promotion to the top flight with the Canaries before he moved to Rangers in the summer of 2017.

Three seasons at Ibrox was followed by a move to Dundee, here he played 27 times before he headed to Australia and Western Sydney Wanderers in November 2020.

Dorrans made 23 appearances for the A-League outfit during the 2020/21 season and scored four goals along the way before returning to Scotland for family reasons, and has now joined Grant's squad as they attempt to push for promotion.

The arrivals of Dorrans and Breen follow those of Kai Kennedy and Reece Cole last week, and we will have more from the new signings in this week's Press Sport.

Meanwhile, Athletic's willingness to work hard on the training pitch and improve their game has Grant in his early weeks in charge.

And the Dunfermline boss is hopeful that that enthusiasm, coupled with being able to spend more time on analysis, can combine to make his team a tough side to play against this season.

Saturday's 4-1 win over Stenhousemuir secured a place in the last 16 of the Premier Sports Cup, with Craig Wighton and Kevin O'Hara netting braces.

Those two, and Nikolay Todorov, had also found the net the previous week - a 5-1 win over Dumbarton - while Dunfermline had also notched a 4-2 success at league rivals Partick Thistle.

A 1-0 loss to section winners St Mirren has been the only blemish so far ahead of Saturday's Championship opener at Greenock Morton, and Grant told Press Sport that his squad deserved credit for the work they had put in so far.

“They know that every day is a learning day as they say,” Grant said.

“I think they know where we want to go. You can dominate the ball as much as you want and get done with a set play, and I found that to my cost over the last two seasons, so I’m very much aware of that, but there was a helluva lot of good stuff.

“It’s great credit to the players. It’s alright that you can tell them and show them, but they’re the ones that’s got to practise it when you pull the curtain back, and I’ve been very pleased with them.

“They’ve tried to do the right thing – we’ll get it wrong at times, for sure – and we just have to show them then.

“That’s probably the beauty of being back full-time; you get to show them the clips and try and work on the different angles they could’ve made or the different decision they could’ve made.

“I never always had that possibility when I was at Alloa because you never had that beauty; you had to be on the training pitch all the time when the boys turned up. You’d send them all the clips, you’d be talking through them from a distance, but at this moment in time you can show them on the training pitch, especially with the weather being like it is just now.

“That’s perfect.”

Kennedy, on loan from Rangers, and ex-Partick Thistle loanee Cole, both made their debuts against the Warriors, and Grant was delighted with their contribution.

"Now it's trying to get him that game matches in his (Kennedy's) legs. Tt's the same with Reece Cole - a long time since they've played games," he explained.

"You can see actually just before we took him (Cole) off he'd actually slipped and I think that was just down to fatigue because he's not played a lot of matches, so I have to be very careful on that.

"I was really really pleased they got their minutes in and I was delighted with their performances. I was with the boys. As I say, obviously we lose the goal and it gives you that wee bit in the back of your throat, but a lot of it was excellent. Probably 80 per cent I was happy with, but that 20 per cent is the bit we've got to work really hard at.

"We always say if anybody comes to Dunfermline, I don't want to send them back as a Dunfermline player. I want to send them back as a player that's capable of playing for Rangers - that's what we try and do.

"I want him (Kennedy) to come here and Rangers see a player they already know they have, the quality, but he doesn't go back a poorer player, he goes back a player that can excite people.

"There's not very many of the guys in the game now that can take people on in one v one situations and that's why we've had to try and get the mix right. We want people that can take one v one situations because they're going to be important at times in games.

"You see him with that one v situation, other ones see space quicker with passes, and other ones are good runners. I think we've got a balance of that in the group.  "You want to get him on the ball; that's the most important thing. Sometimes standing still's the most important thing in football and when you see that, and he's free, give him it early. That's what we have to get better at.

"Kevin (O'Hara) was in great space at times, I thought Craig Wighton's positional play was excellent; I think he's added that to his game in a short period of time. I think they all thought it was about running all the time, running running, but sometimes everybody else has got to move and you move the other way and end up with more space.

"I've been delighted with them. They're taking it on board. Kai's just come in and Reece has just come in, so they'll learn that quickly because that's what we try and produce every day in training so they're very much aware of what's expected of them, so I was really pleased with it."

Grant, however, added that although his long-term injured players were “progressing fantastically well”, Iain Wilson and Ryan Dow will miss the league opener at Morton, noting: “We’re desperate to get them back on the pitch, him and Iain, and hopefully we can do that very soon.”