JOHN HUGHES has revealed that Lewis Martin has been given a contract with Dunfermline until the end of the season.

But the Pars boss has said that on-loan Rangers winger, Kai Kennedy, has been recalled by his parent club and looks set to have played his last game for the club.

Hughes was speaking after yesterday's derby stalemate at Raith Rovers, in which his first signing for the club, Steven Lawless, made his debut.

A noteable name on the substitutes bench was Martin, who has not played since the final match of the curtailed 2019/20 season - a 1-1 draw at Partick Thistle - through injury.

Although he was working without a contract, the versatile 25-year-old has been training with the club to regain fitness, with Hughes previously noting that the player had been 'catching his eye' with his quality and attitude.

That has now been rewarded with a deal until the end of the campaign and, speaking after the game yesterday, Hughes said: "He is still a wee bit short, he still needs a few games but he has acquitted himself very well to get himself in shape.

"He still has a bit to go and we have given him a deal until the end of the season. It is all incentive based; it is up to him to go and show me what he has got.

"I feel for him. It was great that he signed the contract but we have to be very very careful in terms of all the medical side. We have taken the chance on him between now and the end of the season.

"Lewis can play right back, left back, centre half or centre midfield so that spins my players so much. That was a massive, massive part of signing Lewis."

Kennedy, who joined on a season-long loan in the summer, was not in the matchday squad, having appeared from the bench in Boxing Day's defeat to Arbroath, and Hughes explained that and other absentees from his squad, including captain Graham Dorrans.

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"You probably noticed that there were one or two missing because they had been pinged with close contact," Hughes continued.

"Dorrans has not got Covid - he has just been a close contact. Wee Kai (Kennedy) is another one but it is like that throughout, you just need to get on with it. Dan (Pybus) has come in and he has done very very well. He has done himself no harm whatsoever in terms of his effort and commitment.

"I think Dorrans will be back in the next two days but I don’t think that we will see Kai again since Rangers have done a recall. He will be going back to Rangers.

"We missed him tonight, even when he was here on loan he did well at Raith Rovers. It would have been nice that he could have been here tonight and got a shot of it to give us a nice going away present."

On the game itself, in which Dunfermline arguably had its two best chances in the first half through Matty Todd and Lewis McCann, Hughes said there was "disappointment" in the dressing room, but was happy with the performance of debutant Lawless.

"I felt the disappointment in the dressing room but we had a second half to play and the two teams were evenly matched up," Hughes said.

"We ran out of steam in the last twenty minutes because we had to put a lot of work in and we had to freshen it up.

"Toddy might have had a couple of goals from the header and the one at the edge of the box. McCann might have had a goal when he shot but if he might have squared it. We had the better chances and enough to win any football match.

"I was pleased with Steven Lawless’ contribution although we were worried if he could last the full ninety. We were constantly shouting from the bench ‘how are you?’ but he played in a number of positions because we tweaked it a wee bit to get O’Hara on. He has done very very well for someone who has not played a lot of football over the last three or four months."