Danny enjoys the battle
Friday, 24th Aug 2018“Some of the boys may be pals but as soon as the first whistle goes it is all about winning the game and taking all three points.”
In last Saturday’s Betfred Cup tie, Danny Devine is convinced that Hearts keeper Zdenek Zlamal won them the game. Danny came close to scoring an equaliser when his header on a Mark Durnan pass was tipped over the Hearts crossbar by their keeper Zdenek Zlamal. He looked back:-
“It does not happen too often but I thought it was going in and if you look back I think I was already celebrating. Credit to the goalie he had a brilliant afternoon for them and has definitely won them the game for them.
“He has a couple of great saves just before my header. For us it is all about taking positives into the league campaign now.”
There was an element of disappointment after the match from both players and fans especially because of the chances Dunfermline had throughout the game. Danny claimed that the players are trying to take the positives from it into Saturday’s away match against Ayr United:-
“It was a really good performance, we have set the standard now with that performance against Hearts. If you want to do well in this league, it is all about being consistent and having the right attitude especially away from home.
“We know that it is going to be tough, and it is going to be a grind so we need to stick together and keeping the performance level up.”
Hearts arrived at East End Park on the back of defeating Celtic the previous weekend and travelled full of confidence Danny felt:-
“They arrived with their tails up and looking to steam roller us but that just heightened our motivation to go out and prove that we can go out and compete with the big teams in Scotland. I thought we did that for the full ninety minutes, we probably should have won the game at the end of the day.”
The Pars defence embraced the challenge in meeting the Premier League leaders whose attack was led by the imposing figure of Iche Ikpeazu. Danny continued:-
“We knew going into the game that he was on form and he was their danger man. For us at the back, we want to test ourselves against the best strikers in Scotland. He is arguably one of them at the minute.
“The boys loved it. It is always good when there is a challenge put in front of you and you confront it head on. Me and the other two lads we enjoy the battle and we enjoy defending. That’s our jobs at the end of the day.”
From one on form striker to another at Ayr where Lawrence Shankland has scored eight in eight games this season.
“He has scored a lot of goals so far but we don’t concentrate too much on that. We concentrate on ourselves and being solid as a unit, as a team. They have other good players in their team that are just as good and who can also hurt us. We will not just be looking at one player.”
Ayr are unbeaten in their competitive matches this season and Danny laughed when reminded that he would up against several former Athletic players and one of his former Thistle team mates in his first time at Somerset Park:-
“You are always going to get that. In a lot of teams in Scotland a lot of the boys know each other as well. They will be looking to get the win over their club. Some of the boys may be pals but as soon as the first whistle goes it is all about winning the game and taking all three points.”
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