Managers post First Leg
Tuesday, 4th May 202104/05/21: Link to audio of both managers’ post match comments
- - Listen to this Stevie Crawford interview
After the goalless draw with Raith Rovers in the First Leg of the Premiership Quarter Final play off, Stevie Crawford summed it up saying:-
“I was delighted with the application, we created a number of chances in the game and I thought we created the better chances. Other than not winning the game there were a lot of positives to take from tonight.
“Some of our creative play and movement and not just from one or two of my players, credit to all of them for the way they went about their business. As I say other than scoring a goal tonight there were a lot of good things.”
Does that slight frustration that you have not scored a goal that maybe your play deserved?
“You want to win games of football and to win games of football we have got to score goals. I think the way that we finished the season, the goals that we scored and then tonight - I think we were well into double figures with the shots that we had at goal. Jamie Macdonald pulled off a couple of great saves.
“Just that wee bit didn’t happen where it falls for you, we never got on the end of a few things. Application wise their focus on the game from when we found out that we were playing Raith Rovers on Friday night was excellent.”
Delicately poised ahead of the Second Leg on Saturday?
“I said before we played the game tonight that I did not really want to speak about Saturday because you didn’t know what tonight was going to throw at you. I did think it was a great advert for Fife, albeit it was 0-0. Not just ourselves, Raith Rovers showed what it meant to them tonight and equally my players were the same. I thought that it was a good battle and Saturday will be no different.”
What would East End Park have been like had it been full of fans?
“I like to think you guys (the media) enjoyed that game tonight and it is a sin at the moment but it is what it is. Any supporters from either side who watched that and tuned in online will have thought that they have seen two Championship sides that played the game in the right manner.
“I am just hopeful that some time soon we get supporters in because when I came out and did my pre match interview tonight with Brian McLauchlan from the BBC it felt surreal. You know you are coming into a game of this importance and it would have been absolutely bouncing at the Rovers end and in the Norrie. It is sad but it is what it is.
“We appreciate the predicament that we are in and our players will recover properly tomorrow and look forward to an important game at the weekend now.”
Your away form has not always been good this season, are you confident that you can put that right on Saturday?
“The flip of that is that our home form has been terrific. I think that we are a club that is evolving and not frightened to give people opportunities to try and get better. That goes for myself as the manager of the club. I said after going through to Kirkcaldy and returning after the heavy defeat.
“We went 2-0 down there earlier in the season and came back to draw two each. Equally we never got carried away when we won 4-1 here. We know the job in hand, we know what we need to do to go through to play Dundee. We have to go there and win the game so nothing will change between now and Saturday. It is just how we prepare for it and as I say, the performance tonight gave me great hope.”
How much will the 5-1 defeat at Stark’s Park last time put extra fire in your belly?
“You want to win games of football. As a player, as a manager and any coaching staff that I have been on, you want to win. It is more about looking at the tie. Tonight is out of the way now and we know whether it is over 90 minutes or longer on Saturday that will come into our mind as well. It might not be guaranteed that it is ninety minutes, so we have to prepare for that as well.
“It is one that I am looking forward to and purely on tonight’s performance because as I say it showed that the boys are in a good vein of form. I thought some of our attacking play, not just the chances, some of the attacking linking and combination play leading up to the attacking third was very very good.”
- - Hear the post match comments of John McGlynn
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