DUMBARTON manager Stevie Aitken admits he was flattered to be considered for the Raith Rovers job but insists his focus is now solely on the Sons.

Aitken met with the Raith Rovers board last week as they searched for a replacement for Ray McKinnon, who has taken over at Dundee United.

However, the Kirkcaldy club opted for former Hearts and Kilmarnock boss Gary Locke.

Aitken admitted interest in the full time role and praised the Sons board for allowing him to hold talks.

He said: “I was flattered there was interest there. I went and met them and had good discussions with their board. But ultimately they have appointed someone else as their manager.

“I never indicated I wanted to leave, I never applied for the job, they approached Dumbarton and credit to the board for allowing me to speak to them.

“It was a difficult week because when something like that happens there is a lot going on.

“It shows we’re doing a good job at Dumbarton when a club the size of Raith Rovers want to speak to you.”

The Sons boss revealed that the Raith talks had delayed his signing plans for next season. But he revealed several players have agreed to sign for Dumbarton, and Sons confirmed the arrival of midfielder Andy Stirling from Stranraer on Tuesday. Aitken expects further deals to be finalised this week.

He said: “It has put things back a bit in terms of us signing players, it stalled for a few days there and we just picked it back up at the weekend.

“It was difficult because we had plans in place but it’s good that it is all sorted now and we can focus on the task ahead.

“There’s players agreed to sign which should be announced this week, but we have to go through the club first and we’ll announce them when they are actually signed.

“There’ll be some of the current squad signing up and players we’re bringing in to the club as well.

“The current squad have been very patient with me because of what happened last week but they are starting to commit now. There’s a number of our own squad have said they’ll sign and no one has said they won’t sign.”