Ewan Henderson up for Saturday

“If you can’t motivate yourself doing something you love and being in such a great position, playing football every day of your life like you wanted to do as a kid, then what else can motivate you?

On loan Celtic midfielder Ewan Henderson has made nine appearances for Dunfermline and been involved in every match since being signed in late March but he and the rest of the Dunfermline squad, have blotted out any memory of his starting debut in the disastrous defeat at Raith Rovers. He quickly dismissed any talk about the last visit to Kirkcaldy:-

“That happened ages ago, so nobody is really fussed about that. It shows how mentally tough that we are and how tight a group we are, to come back from getting beat 5-1 to produce a performance like that on Tuesday night.”

Ewan admitted that in the first leg of the Premiership Quarter Final Dunfermline came up against a side worthy of their third place finish in their first season back in the Championship:-

“Raith Rovers were good, they are a top team, they play lovely football and it is always going to be a tough game against them.

“I thought we created a lot of chances, sometimes you don’t take them but come Saturday we are going to have to take the chances.”

Craig Wighton, Declan McManus, Kevin O’Hara, Dom Thomas, Scott Banks and Ewan himself all had opportunities during the first leg and so they can go into Saturday’s second leg confident that they can turn the pressure on Raith:-

“I thought every player was creating chances, we felt good going into the game and we have had a good run of games going into the game. All we can do is take that form into Saturday and hopefully get the victory.”

Ewan has been delighted to be involved in every one of Dunfermline’s matches during his loan period at the club. He continued:-

“Someone at my age of 21 needs to be playing games so it is good to be playing games, the boys have all been good with me since I first came into to train with them. They have all given me a helping hand to understand what I have to do on the pitch and even off it - recovery and things like that. It has been really good and I am enjoying it.”

Dunfermline train on an artificial surface at the Indodrill Stadium so they do not consider themselves as disadvantaged going to Stark’s Park and with no fans in the stadium, Ewan feels that there is little to give Raith much of a home advantage:-

“We train on AstroTurf every day. It might help them but on Friday night we played very well against Alloa, we played good football and probably the best we have played since I arrived here.

“It has been rubbish without the fans all season. Everyone is the same way, it is not the best way to play but we cannot really change that so it is just like every other game. The home advantage doesn’t really matter now because there are no fans.”

Given what is at stake the two Fife derbies in these Premiership play offs would have generated fantastic atmospheres at East End and Stark’s Park but Ewan maintains that motivation will still be high even with no fans present:-

“Everyone in that changing room loves playing football, we are doing something we love. If you can’t motivate yourself doing something you love and being in such a great position, playing football every day of your life like you wanted to do as a kid, then what else can motivate you?”

The Edinburgh born player who has represented Scotland at under 17, under 19 and under 21 international level is full of optimism for Saturday, he closed:-

“We thought that we did very well in the game but we just need to keep our heads down, keep working hard and hopefully get the result on Saturday that we need.

“It doesn’t matter how you win the game, if we can play well first and foremost, hopefully the victory will come from our performance.”

Related Stories

• Preview Raith Rovers
• Dunfermline 0 Raith Rovers 0
• Managers post First Leg
• Drawing from experience of Man of many Play offs