STEVIE Aitken is hoping to strengthen his threadbare Dumbarton squad during the January transfer window after he struggled to name a full bench against Dunfermline.

The Sons lost 1-0 at the YOUR Radio 103FM Stadium on Saturday after being unable to cancel out Joe Cardle's first half strike for the visitors.

Aitken, whose side take on Ladbrokes Championship leaders St. Mirren at home this weekend, stressed he would like to bring in some new faces this month.

"We always knew it was going to be difficult with the size of squad we had," he said. "Dougie Hill was injured just before the game and Alex Roy was injured and had to go on the bench just to make up numbers even though he couldn't go on the park. We are low on numbers.

"But next week we will have Kyle Hutton back, Sam Wardrop back, hopefully Andy Dowie and Dougie Hall and hopefully some players we can use.

"We will try to bring in as much as we can. But it changes all the time. We were looking to bring a left back in and then Chris McLaughlin gets injured for maybe the season.

"But we are out there. We know what we want, we know what we need, we know what we're short on. We will work hard to try and get it."

Aitken stated that he was unconcerned with what Falkirk, who are a place below them in the second tier table and who thrashed Dundee United 6-1 on Saturday, had done and stressed that his focus was firmly on Dumbarton.

"What Falkirk do doesn't interest me," he said. "We worry about ourselves. We will look to add players to our squad and look to get players back fit. If we can do that it will maybe give us a chance."