Raith Rovers boss Ray McKinnon was last night holding talks in a bid to sign Aidan Connolly.

The winger left Dundee United by mutual consent yesterday and the Stark’s Park manager is keen to bring him to the Kirkcaldy club.

Connolly, who trained with Rovers earlier this week, is the son of McKinnon’s former Dundee United team-mate Paddy.

The 20-year-old was signed by Jackie McNamara from Queen’s Park but had barely featured under current Tannadice manager Mixu Paatelainen.

Now, McKinnon, who had Connolly on loan for a spell when he was Brechin boss, is hopeful a deal can be thrashed out to persuade the player to join Raith.

The Stark’s boss said: “Aidan’s not an out-and-out striker but he’s a front player, he’s clever and he’s really creative, with great feet, and he would create opportunities.

“He’s a really talented football player and you can’t get enough of them in your team.

“He’s played a lot of first-team games and he would give us loads of creativity up front.

“He’s got real trickery and he keeps the ball well. He would gives us something different and is a real, tidy ball player around the box.

“He’ll chip in with goals as well.

“He had another couple of offers but he trained with us and said he loves it and this was where he wanted to come.

“So hopefully we can get it done.”

McKinnon, who has been looking to add to his striking options since the departure of Craig Wighton and Jon Daly, will also run the rule over a foreign front man next week.

The manager said: “We’ve got a striker coming in next week from abroad and we’ll see how he is and whether we want to offer him anything.

“If not, we’ll just go with what we’ve got and keep our eye out for what’s about.

“We’ve got Louis Longridge who can play down one side, but he’ll also score goals, and it’ll mean Mark Stewart won’t have to go out of the box so much.

“We’d have a lot of creativity up top. Fingers crossed we can get it over the line.

“Grant Anderson could play up front as well. He’s very good in the air and he can make good runs.

“I played him as a second striker earlier in the season. He’s a winger but he could be that one, with three behind him all playing around him.

“If you put the ball in the box he’ll go and attack it.”

Raith have not had their injury problems to seek in recent weeks but the manager is finally beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

McKinnon added: “Lewis Toshney is back training today and Craig Barr is back in full training.

“The only ones injured just now are Lewis Vaughan and Jason Thomson.

“Jason got a scan on his back yesterday and will probably get the results on Friday before seeing the specialist on Monday.

“So, he could be back in training next week.

“Lewis actually had a wee kick of a ball the other day, so he’s got the specialist on February 12 and could be back in training in the next few weeks.

“So, maybe, come the end of February, we could have a full squad, which would be incredible.

“My bench would be unbelievable!”