Nizzy knackered but back on target

“When my chance came along it was just instinct to finish and thankfully it went in.”

Two goals from Kevin Nisbet ensured it was a great night for Dunfermline - three points and a victory that definitely needed. A delighted Kevin felt that the first half against Arbroath was probably even:-

“There probably weren’t a lot of chances but in the second half we upped our game, picked the tempo up, got our chances and took them.”

Kevin played against Arbroath with Raith Rovers last season, both he and Arbroath have come up to the Championship and he observed:-

“It’s been the same group of boys there for three or four years and they all know their jobs and are a very good team and very hard to play against. Last season, they did so well and had a great run, and they’ve taken that into this season. Coming up, their confidence is high and on 14 points they’re above us on merit but we’re now looking to catch them and keep doing that up the table.”

For Kevin and his team mates it was good to get back to winning ways after the Dundee United defeat. He did feel that on Saturday the team did look better after the interval:-

“I thought the second-half performance at Tannadice was very good and we wanted to take that into ‪Tuesday night‬’s game. The exact same thing happened against Arbroath, we came out flying in the second half and got the goals and killed the game off.

“I probably should have had three or four but, to be fair, my legs weren’t working at the end! I was just knackered. I made three or four runs at the end and I was done.”

After getting off the mark swiftly as a Dunfermline player with five goals in the Betfred Cup, Kevin has only scored two goals in the first ten league games so the brace against Arbroath were important fo4 him as well as the team:-

“In recent weeks, I’ve been missing chances that I should have been scoring, so I was happy. All last week in training I was on fire, hitting the target. I was probably thinking about it too much and trying to hit the corners (of the net) instead of just hitting the target. When my chance came along it was just instinct to finish and thankfully it went in.”

The 22 year old striker had opportunities to record his second Pars hat trick but put one over the bar and other got blocked, he replied:-

“My legs were done! I’ve done well to ‘chop’ the boy for the last chance and I just couldn’t swing my leg back. I tried to get as much on it as possible but it was blocked. At the end of the day, it’s three points and two goals for me, personally, and we move on to Saturday now.”

Kevin was brought back into the side after not starting against Dundee United but he felt that Andy Ryan had to be given his chance:-

“Chucky had scored two in two prior to the United game, so it was his chance, definitely. But against Arbroath I thought me and him linked up well, with Kiltie and Dowser on the wing. I think the four of us would cause problems for any team in this league, so hopefully we can take it into Saturday and get the three points.”

Saturday’s match is at home to Queen of the South, Kevin continued:-

“I think it’s a ‘six-pointer’ on Saturday. We need to go and play with the same intensity and the same movement up front, and flair and I think we can get the job done. But it’s about turning up on the day and hopefully we do.”

He is hoping to improve on the 1-1 draw against Queen of the South in August:-

“Down there is a very hard place to go, as Dundee United found out when they got beat 4-0. It was just a mistake from us for their goal, so if we cut out the mistakes then we’ll have a good chance.”

After a couple of home wins Kevin agreed that momentum is building for the Pars:-

“We’re a good team away but prior to the Ayr game we weren’t doing well at home. It’s important for us to make this a fortress and let teams know they’re not just going to be able to come and play. We’ll get in their faces and we’ll play football, because if we play football we can beat any team in this league.”

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