Andy Ryan’s Lucky Mascot
Monday, 15th Jul 2019“We just want to win games of football and we need to instil that winning mentality this year.
After having had such a positive effect as mascot on Sunday, Andy Ryan is hoping that his son Aaron can be the Dunfermline mascot at every home game.
The Pars striker scored one and assisted another as they raced into a three goal lead over the Premier League, St Mirren. Only one flaw, son Aaron was the St Mirren mascot!
Andy said:-
“I hope he was cheering me when I scored, he probably wasn’t even interested since he is only two. It will have been a great day for him as well and luckily enough I got a goal for him when he was watching.”
“A St Mirren fan for one day only” claimed Andy whose partner is the daughter of the St Mirren Technical Director Gus MacPherson.
“He got a new Dunfermline strip last week. In the house he is football daft and runs about with that on all the time. I will need to see if I can get him to be the mascot at every home game.”
The Pars stunned their hosts with three goals within 21 minutes. Andy described them:-
“At the first Ryan Dow did well, it was a great composed finish. At my goal the defender let me come inside on to my left foot which I was looking to do. The defender didn’t get tight enough and I used him as a shield to try and find the far corner. Luckily it has found the back of the net.
“The third one Tom Beadling, who I thought was magnificent all game, managed to break from the middle of the park to get the rebound. He has been rewarded for it.”
There was no doubt that an athletic looking team posed a serious threat in their first half of competitive action together.
“This year we have a young hungry group of boys, bar Paul Paton” he joked. “We just want to win games of football and we need to instil that winning mentality this year. I don’t think that was there last year. We don’t fear anybody. “
After such a successful first 45 minutes Andy suggested that the game turned out to be a tale of two halves:-
“I thought first half we were great and the second half we had to show a bit of character. We knew that they would come out after the break and come at us. In that way we showed that we can do both sides of the game.”
The previous Saturday the Pars had found themselves ahead against Hibs in a pre season friendly but conceded within four minutes of the start of the second half. Andy recognised that the boost that gave Hibs and the objective was to avoid that happening again.
“As they say goals change games and it gave Hibs confidence to go and try and score more.” The 24 year old striker said the half time instructions were just to keep it tight:-
“We conceded the first goal but it is something that we have to learn from, that is what these games are for before going into the league campaign.”
Andy hopes to be involved in that league campaign and play more than the twenty matches he managed last season. Injury kept him out from November until the final match of the campaign, he closed:-
“I am still playing catch up on game time after being out for six months last season. After pre season I feel good, I have done all the running and have that under my belt. It is just a matter of getting game time and this tournament is perfect for that.”
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