Budget D-day for Jim Jefferies as Dunfermline face up to the drop

Dunfermline manager Jim Jefferies will find out next week how much he is being given to fund the Pars’ First Division campaign.

Jefferies side host Kilmarnock on the final day of the season knowing their fate is already sealed. A 4-0 loss to Hibernian on Monday sent the Fife side through the relegation trapdoor, and plans are already afoot at East End Park to cut their cloth accordingly.

The manager will know from his board next week what his new budget is and then, with 14 players out of contract in the summer, Jefferies will have to weigh up which of his seasoned First Division campaigners will stay on.

Jefferies said: “If you want to come back up in one year, you are going to find it hard to do it with a total team of youngsters. Wholesale changes will only come if that’s what the board want to do.

“But if they say they want to come straight up and the budget is around the same, then these boys have proved they can do it in the First Division. Then I’d only have to make the changes I would want to.”

One player Jefferies would like to see lining up in black and white next year is Joe Cardle.

The wide midfielder has only featured irregularly under the manager and has no shortage of admirers but, with another year to run on his contract, the experienced boss expects him to be a Pars players come July.

Jefferies said: “Joe’s under contract so if anyone wants Joe Cardle and he wants to go then if the offer’s right we’ll talk to Joe and if he moves on, he moves on.

“First and foremost he is under contract and I would like to keep him. The only way he can go is if someone buys him, otherwise he’ll be here trying to help us get back up.”

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