JOHN HUGHES has described Pars chairman Ross McArthur as “absolutely outstanding” and believes he will be a huge loss to the club.

McArthur is set to step down from his role at the end of the season, at which point the club’s new training base at Rosyth will be preparing to open its doors and welcome the first-team squad, new youth academy and the Pars Foundation.

Hughes, who is hoping to win his second successive league match this weekend at Hamilton Academical, spoke in glowing terms about McArthur – who it was revealed had suffered personal abuse in the wake of the team’s poor form this season – this week when he was asked if was going to have any input into the club’s new base.

“I’ve met Ross about half a dozen times now, and Ross is going to be the biggest loss to this club. He’s absolutely outstanding,” he said.

“You can still see the twinkle in his eye. He’s really upset with everything that’s happened and, as supporters, we have to be better than that. I don’t know the ins and outs but we need to be better than that. We need to conduct ourselves in a proper manner, and what he’s done for this football club is astonishing.

“Yet, I saw a twinkle in his eye when he pulled the plans out for the academy. You can see it, it’s still there.

“I was trying to twist his arm to say come on, chairman, I could do with you helping me.

“Ross being Ross said listen, why don’t we all get the staff together? Like all good leaders do, you listen to everybody, from the kit man, everybody, to see if we can put a wee input in there just to make it better.

“I’ve just got a wee sneaky feeling that Ross has really got that bit between the teeth for that academy down there to make sure that, when he does resign, there’s something that his legacy has left behind.”