Waiting for time to head for success

Kevin O’Hara: “I have to sit on the bench until the time is right to come on and help the team by scoring goals like I did.”

After scoring the winning goal against Arbroath in time added on at the end of the 90, Pars striker Kevin O’Hara declared that is just what he is at Dunfermline for - to score goals.

“I have to be patient sitting on the bench sometimes when the manager doesn’t select me. I can be disappointed when I am not playing but I have to sit on the bench until the time is right to come on and help the team by scoring goals like I did.”

It was the eighth time this season that Kevin had watched from the subs bench and he observed:-

“In the first half of the game we had a lot of chances, they just didn’t fall to us. On another day the chances would go in the back of the net and we would have won the game comfortably.

“Sometimes that happens in football and it showed there. We kept working hard and got the rewards in the end.”

Showing no reaction to missing the penalty against St Johnstone in the Betfred Cup penalty shoot out, Kevin said that well behind him now:-

“I was disappointed that night of the St Johnstone game, raw with missing the penalty but I got up the next day and got back into training and worked hard again.

“If I am on the bench I just have to keep working hard and show the manager that I can come into the team whenever he needs me and score goals.

“The manager knows my frustrations, it is only natural every player wants to play. I have just got to show in training that I am ready. He brought me in to score goals and it is good to repay him on Saturday with a goal to win the three points.”

Kevin has now made fifteen Dunfermline appearances and has scored seven goals and five of those have been after coming on as a substitute. To come on and score the winner is all the manager can wish for in a sub and Kevin continued:-

“The boys did excellently in the time that I wasn’t on. I have got to be patient and when I come on that is what I have to do, help the team out. That is what I did and obviously I am happy with the three points.”

It was left back Josh Edwards who provided the cross that Kevin headed home for the winner and a good coincidence that the two of them had been joking pre match about the need for more deliveries into the danger zone. Kevin explained:-

“Me and Josh were having a wee joke in the warm up to be fair. I keep saying to him that he needs to put more balls into the box and I don’t know if it was fate or luck that he did and I scored the goal. It was a great ball from Josh, that is what he is capable of so I think he will start to do it a bit more often now.

“I only had a couple of touches in the game but I just got myself in the middle of the box, that is where you score goals - in the middle of the six yard box. I am just happy to get that goal and the three points because they could be a big three points in the season.”

The game was not exactly going the home side’s way as the chances were coming and going without being converted but the final result earned three important points. Kevin added:-

“You have to win a lot of games at home to do well in the league. When we came in and checked the results, it is always a good boost for us that we got three points as well as Hearts, Dundee and Raith. It keeps us in touch with them, we just need to work hard when we get back into training on Monday and go again for Inverness on Tuesday.

“We will enjoy our three points tonight and go in on Monday ready for the two big games coming up. As I said earlier they could be massive three points in the season as well.”

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