Andy Ryan’s goalscoring omen
Monday, 21st Oct 2019Handy Andy not wanting super sub tag but his success off the subs bench is impressive
For the second match running Andy Ryan has come off the bench to score for Dunfermline. He would fear the tag super sub but he has scored half of his sixteen Dunfermline matches having come on off the bench.
Andy has started 22 matches and come off the bench 33 times but in every Dunfermline match when he has scored, the team has never lost.
The 25 year old sub looked as though he had secured a win with his 87th minute goal at Cappielow in the previous game only to be pegged back with a late late equaliser. On Saturday after replacing the club’s leading goalscorer Kevin Nisbet in 61st minute, his goal with six of the regulation 90 minutes remaining was the decider in a five goal thriller against Ayr United.
Watching from the sidelines Andy could you see chances and was itching to get on. After his goal at Morton he felt the disappointment of not starting but was keen to give the manager something to think about. He felt that is the important thing.
“We had chances in the first half and you are just hoping and praying that you will get one when you come on, thankfully I did.
“You are disappointed at not starting, the only way to give him a headache is to come on and score goals. That is what I need to continue to do.”
Andy feels that the victory is important since it shows that the team is learning from its failings:-
“You go ahead in the game against Morton but concede a goal with thirty seconds to go. On Saturday I had a couple of shots and a couple of balls ricocheting about the box but we managed to grind in which we didn’t do against Morton, the pleasing thing is that we have seen the victory out.”
Andy’s was the third of the three Pars goals but the three points are the most significant haul from the afternoon’s toils:-
“From a striker’s point of view it is always good to score, it kind of takes away a bit (of the pain) of the Morton equaliser. When you score it is good from a personal point of view but the main thing is that we got the three points because you saw the results everywhere else. If we had lost that game on Saturday then we could have been drifting apart.”
A cracking ball through from Greg Kiltie set up Andy for a tidy finish from an angle on the right. Andy felt that made up for a chance he created just before scoring:-
“I made the run from the half way line and was falling over my own feet. I spoke to Greg on the pitch and he said keep going, ‘you will get another chance’. Thankfully I did and I put that one away.”
Grateful for the assist, Andy praised the qualities of his on loan Kilmarnock team mate:-
“He is a player when he gets on that half turn, you know to make your movement and he will try and find you at all times. He has played at a good level and always looking to find that pass. As a centre forward that is where I want to be, in and around the box with players like that trying to find me.”
Coming back to win from 2-1 down was made possible after a wonderful strike from Lee Ashcroft had pulled the Pars back level with 27 minutes remaining. Andy was happy to accept it although he felt that there had been as good a chance of the effort being as spectacularly well off target!
“It was like an Agüero Kompany moment I was shouting to him. The big man has caught it sweet as a nut and thankfully it has found the top corner. I was surprised it was not the top of the stand. We will take it. It was just one of those ones, as soon as you connect with it you know that it is going in.”
The two goal comeback to win showed tremendous character for a team equally as desperate for a home win as their fans:-
“We were fighting for everything, we had balls bouncing about the box and they were blocking and the keeper was saving it.
“We were pressing and pressing. The manager had made positive substitutions to try and go and get that winner. Everybody is glad that we finally gave the fans something to go away happy about.”
It had been a long time since Dunfermline won at home in the league, that was against Queen of the South on 2nd March but Andy believes the win over Ayr is a massive confidence builder:-
“I think it shows that we are grinding in with two boys coming off with head knocks, cuts and having to get stitches in the changing room. It shows that there is a fighting spirit there. We just have to make sure that we kick on from this now and start climbing that league.
“It is going to be a difficult game next week away to Dundee United, they will be looking for a reaction after their result on Saturday (0-4). All the pressure is on them on the back of a bad result. We just need to go up there, take confidence from this game and hopefully we can get something from the game.”
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