Manager on Thursday
Thursday, 22nd Mar 201822/03/18: AJ - “Hopefully we can be on the front foot and get the three points we all need.”
Despite a handsome win at Brechin on Tuesday night, Allan Johnston was still bemoaning his side’s inability to get a win over Morton at East End Park last Saturday:-
“We should have had the three points and that’s probably happened quite a lot this season, but I thought it was a better performance against Morton.
“We were the better team, we restricted them - especially in the second-half - to very few opportunities, and it looked like it was only a matter of time before we scored.
“We had great opportunities towards the end of the game, and we’ve probably got to score. Declan McManus had a great chance, Tom Beadling had a great chance. there were three or four really good chances that we should have scored from. So, it’s frustrating when you don’t get the three points.
“But that game’s gone and I think we’re playing with a bit more confidence again. You can see that starting to come back. It was good to get another clean sheet, because that’s really important. We’ve had a lot of them since the turn of the year and we’ve just got to make sure we keep on defending well and give ourselves a platform to build on. You can see the confidence coming back going forward as well. we’re starting to create more chances and score more goals.”
The win was an ideal uplift as the trip to Tannadice to play Dundee United looms on Saturday.
“They’ve got a lot of games in hand but you can see how hard it is to win games in this division. So, we’ve just got to focus on ourselves and get as many wins as we can between now and the end of the season.
“You can see everybody’s vying for those couple of play-off places that are left and we want to make sure we’re there come the end of the season.
United have been struggling of late and a Pars win would actually take them above their opponents. AJ commented:-
“They’ve changed their team about a fair bit as well. There’s been a lot of changes, a couple of changes every week. I see they’ve signed Mohsni as well, Ralston played in the last game.
“There have been a lot of boys coming in, new players and maybe boys who haven’t been playing every week. That is difficult sometimes and we’ve got to try to take advantage of that.
“I’m sure after the result this week they’ll be looking to make changes again, so hopefully we can be on the front foot and get the three points we all need.”
In comparison Dunfermline Athletic look fairly settled. AJ continued:-
“You’re hoping that will benefit us. To be fair to United, they’ve got a lot of good players, a lot of guys who have played at a really good level, some top players.
“But we’re due a result against Dundee United. We’ve had a lot of good performances, but it’s time we started turning the decent performances into wins. So, we’re going there to try to get the three points and to get ahead of them in the table. There’s not much more incentive than that.”
Seven points from nine should be confidence building.
“You can see the confidence. Getting the win in the Inverness game, and even in that, you could see the confidence coming back. The players were trying to create, and taking chances, and having that bit of creativity in the team makes a difference. We’ve just go to to make sure we follow up every result with the type of performance we have lately.
“Teams are struggling to score goals against us, which is always a good sign because you don’t want to give away cheap goals. We’re going to have to defend at times this weekend, because they’ve got decent players as well. But hopefully we can make them defend.”
Team news suggests that Joe Cardle will probably miss the Tannadice match with an ankle injury sustained in training last week.
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