Inverness at end of a long road for Joe

”It has been a long nine months, obviously I would gave preferred it have been a better result. It`s been a long road for myself and delighted to be part of the team today.”

After four appearances off the bench in the last four weeks, Joe Thomson made his first start of the season for Dunfermline on Saturday at Inverness. For him the importance of that was overshadowed by the 2-0 defeat. Speaking directly after the match at the Caledonian Stadium, he told the website:-

”The feeling is one of disappointment. I don`t think we did ourselves justice today with the way we played, we did not play as well as we are capable of and probably the better team won. Disappointing for us and for the fans who have the made the long journey.”

The goals that made all the difference came from full back Shaun Rooney in the 33rd minute and central defender Jamie McCart ten minutes from the end. The 22 year old midfielder and the team were unhappy with the manner in which they came about:-

”For as much as Inverness probably deserved to win the game, the disappointment is that the two goals have come from setplays.”

The visitors’ two really good first half opportunities fell to the Pars top goalscorer and if they had to fall to anyone Kevin Nisbet is the one that all Pars fans would have wanted to see given the chance. Joe commiserated:-

”We cannot blame Nizzy, he had had been brilliant all season but at the end of the day we probably did not create enough.”

The inclusion of Joe Thomson in the starting eleven was for the first time since injuring his anterior crucial event ligament and subsequent surgery.

The injury occurred in the home match against Ayr United on 29th March. Up until then the close season signing from Celtic in June 2018 had made 29 starts and three appearances off the bench in the 2018-2019 season. Joe added:-

”It has been a long nine months, obviously I would gave preferred it have been a better result. It`s been a long road for myself and delighted to be part of the team today.”

Withdrawn as a 74th minute sub to make way for Andy Ryan, Joe had no quibble with the manager’s call:-

”I felt brilliant, I wanted to stay on to help the team. I would never to be happy to be substituted, I felt fresh and as if I could have lasted the game. We were getting beat 1-0 and we needed to put a striker on, so I fully understand the decision.”

Now with back to back defeats on the road at Dundee and Inverness, Joe stressed the importance of restarting their good home record against Alloa Athletic on Saturday:-

”We have two home games now so we need to keep our good home form going. Hopefully we can take that into the next two games.”

Joe and his team mates will have Christmas day off, and since that is a Wednesday it will be a normal working week for the players. He did however add his hopes for a nice festive day:-

”I am looking forward to a nice day with the family but after it is done, full focus comes on the Alloa game.”

Related Stories

• Inverness CT 2 Dunfermline 0
• Managers post Inverness
• Dunfermline Athletic players take up Christmas crafts at Rachel House