Manager on Easter Monday

02/04/18: AJ - “The difficult thing in this league is winning games especially when you have a lot of games to catch up on.

Ahead of the important match against Livingston on Tuesday night, Dunfermline Athletic manager Allan Johnston today reflected on Saturday’s win over Queen of the South:-

“I was really happy with the result first and foremost. At this stage of the season you need to get results. I thought we played really well in the first half, we created loads of chances and produced some really good play.

“In the build up to some of the goals, especially the first and second goals, there must have been about twelve passes before it. I am really happy with that.

“We let them back into the game in the second half and they put a bit of pressure on us but overall I was delighted with the performance, we just need to make sure we continue that between now and the end of the season.”

He was pleased with the pace that there was about the team and the directness of Fraser Aird.

“He created some good chance, he put a great ball in for the goal and was unlucky on a couple other occasions as well. He gave us that wee bit of a spark and it is always good when you have that creativity going forward. It is something that we have been missing a bit lately.”

Saturday was just Fraser Aird’s sixth league start, the manager stressed that it was now up to him to keep his place in the team.

“Obviously it it about consistency, he knows himself that he has to go on a good run of form between now and the end of the season. But as does everyone because we have a good squad, good competition for places and good energy in the middle of the park. Young Tom (Beadling) was again very good at breaking things up. We are in a good vein of form at the moment.”

The defence too played their part and AJ let that they will have to be at the top of their game to keep out Tuesday night’s visitors Livingston.

“Livingston are one of the biggest teams in the league especially if they play Gallagher in the middle of the park as he has been in the last couple of games with Gregor Buchanan in the back three. I don’t know if they will do that, they might put Gallagher back in. It all depends, they shuffle it about a wee bit.

“Whatever way it is, they are a big team with four or five guys who are six foot three plus probably. How we defend setpieces, long throws are going to be massive. Don’t give away free kicks, don’t give away cheap corners that put you under pressure.

“Anything round about the box Alan Lithgow comes up and takes long throws into the box. Then it is second balls and they are hard to deal with. We have to make sure that we expose them, especially in the wider areas and try and get down the side of their centre halves.

“Livingston have done extremely well this season. If you look at their results they are really consistent, they are hard to play against and they have scored a lot of goals lately. Hopefully we can keep them at bay and get a couple of goals because we need to win to keep pressure on teams up above us.”

The Pars gaffer is well aware that on Saturday Livingston had their result against Dumbarton tied up by half time. He added:-

“That was while missing a couple of key players as well. It just shows you the confidence that they are playing with just now but we are playing with a lot of confidence as well. We are on a good run of form as well so it is two form teams coming together and hopefully we can come out on top.”

Now in the top four, that is where Dunfermline wants to stay and winning the last five matches is probably imperative. The manager said:-

“You see how tight the league is, even the teams below us going down as far as Falkirk and Inverness, if they win their games in hand then it is incredibly tight.

“The difficult thing in this league is winning games especially when you have a lot of games to catch up on. You would rather have the points.

“We have to focus on ourselves and make sure that between now and the end of the season we get as many wins as possible. A win rather than a draw makes a massive difference.

“We will focus on this next game because everything changes so quick when you see the results and the table. So one game at a time, I know it is an old cliche but it is really really important. There are no easy games in this league. It doesn’t matter whether you are playing a team at the bottom or a team at the top they are that similar. You cannot lose focus.”

On the availability front, Joe Cardle is described as ‘getting closer’ but the Livingston match is just too soon for him. James Vincent will unlikely be risked on Tuesday night since he has felt his hamstring of late.

“We are not going to take any chances, we need to make sure that he is one hundred per cent right but he is not far away as well.”

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