JAMES McPAKE has said that Dunfermline are aiming to do business “as efficiently and as effectively” as possible before the transfer deadline.

The Pars boss is keen to further strengthen his squad to build on an encouraging start to their League One season, which sees them unbeaten after five matches, and only being kept off the summit on goal difference.

Since replacing John Hughes in the close season, following the team’s relegation from the Championship, the former Dundee manager has added centre back Kyle Benedictus, midfielder Chris Hamilton and goalkeeper, Max Little, on permanent deals, as well as Dundee defender Sam Fisher and Dundee United attacking midfielder Chris Mochrie on loan.

In recent weeks, however, McPake has stressed the need to bolster his pool and is hoping to secure targets as quickly as possible.

While the deadline for Scottish clubs passes at midnight tonight (Thursday), clubs outwith the top flight can, during September, still sign players on loan if they play in a higher division.

Any free agents who have not been registered with another club this summer can also sign for clubs and, when asked if that that means there is less desperation to secure players by the deadline, or if he anticipated any business would be done before it, McPake explained to Press Sport: “We’re working away.

“We’ll see what the week brings but it is now starting to move.

“There is a recruitment drive, or whatever you want to call it, a recruitment process, at the club that we follow.

“Now, to just get desperate, I think that was the word you used there, to get to that point, and now just jump on it, it’s not what we’re going to do. We want to add quality to the squad, and that’s what we’re focusing on at the minute.

“It might help that we can go into September for loan deals, but anything we’re trying to do, we’re trying to do it as efficiently and as effectively as we can.

“That sometimes does take time, but we are looking.”

Last month, following Athletic’s victory at FC Edinburgh in their second league outing, McPake told Press Sport that he had a “very, very thin squad, worryingly at times” at his disposal, and suggested that they were “a couple of injuries away from, for want of another word, a crisis”.

Kevin O’Hara was forced off with a knee knock during Saturday’s top-of-the-table draw with Airdrieonians - although McPake said he should be fine for this weekend’s trip to Queen of the South - while Craig Wighton, who has seen a specialist in London, also missed out with a knee problem, and Rhys Breen played despite having had a bout of food poisoning earlier in the week.

When asked if his heart is in his mouth if a player picks up a knock, McPake continued: “Not for anything other than you care for the players.

“You want them to be healthy, you want them to be fit to be able to play. At the end of the day, it’s a job to them, and they’ve all got families or different circumstances.

“I was a player that had to stop playing through injury so, just from that point of view, yeah, never from a point of view that ‘I need that player for next week’.

“For me, you’re caring too much there about them as a player rather than a person. The perfect example I think is Craig Wighton, in that we need to take him out so we get the best out of him, but also for his career going forward, that we get his knee right.

“That’s certainly what we’ve done, and that’s a credit to the medical staff and the football club because it is an expense, to go and get these specialists, and get them to have an opinion on it. Then you spend the time and it’s the player that gives the time up as well off the pitch.

“We’ve had the opinion of Mr Williams in London, so we’re pretty happy with what’s come back, and hopefully we’ll see Craig back soon. He’s still got a lot of football ahead of him and we believe we can get him to a level, but it’s taken that time to get the leg strong.

“You want your squad to be as strong as possible. You want all these players at your disposable but, at the end of the day, they’re human beings so we’ve got to look after them.”

McPake also said that Graham Dorrans, who has yet to feature this season, was “still progressing really well”, while Paul Allan was due to have a further x-ray on his foot to check how well it is healing.