Joe Cardle loses the monkey

"It is the monkey off the back as they say. Hopefully we can push on now.

Joe Cardle was happy with the win over Brechin City on Saturday but felt that Athletic could have done it more convincingly:-

"We started the game well and the first half was all our way. We were getting on the ball and creating a lot of chances. The second half was a completely different game.

"Brechin sat in and frustrated us. It was good to get the three points but I always tend to look at the negatives in a game. You have to look at the positives, it has been a long time since we got a win in the league so we are happy that we got the three points and hopefully now we can push on."

That last League win was against Livingston on 21st October and Joe admitted that the first win in eight came as a relief to the players who knew themselves that the record had been really poor.

"We know ourselves that we have been nowhere near at it and so we are glad to get the three points and it was a massive thing for us. It is the aim every week but we knew that at home against Brechin, with their record this season, that we had to get the three points.

"It is the monkey off the back as they say. Hopefully we can push on now. Confidence levels have been low as of late and I think confidence plays a massive part in everyone`s football - the management, staff, the players and everyone. Now that we have the three points our confidence levels can go up a wee bit and keep picking up the three points."

The result on Saturday took the Pars back into third place. Joe said that he hoped that they could kick on now and get back to the levels they were showing at the start of the season.

It was a Cardle move that set up what turned out to be the winning goal in just the fourth minute of the second half. He added:-

"It was a great strike from Michael Paton, he does that with regularity in training. I felt unfortunate not to get a goal myself since I have been waiting for my tenth goal of the season for quite a while now. Hopefully it will come soon but I am happy to play a part in any goal."

Next up are matches against Livingston and Falkirk. Two local derbies as far as the Championship is concerned and Joe claimed that all the players were looking forward to these fixtures:-

"When it comes to the likes of Falkirk everyone looks forward these sort of games but we have Livingston first which is going to be a tough game. We have already been there this season and we found that really difficult although we got the draw in the end.

"After that display against Brechin, especially first half, we know that we have the quality, the players to win games. Let`s hope that we can turn it on now and turn our season around."

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