Shut out would be foundation for fortress

“This is East End Park that they are coming to, so this is our fortress and we need to turn it into a fortress again.”

This Saturday’s cinch Championship fixture brings top of the table Inverness Caledonian Thistle as visitors to East End and having won their last six matches, Billy Dodds team is just one win away from their best winning streak since their record setting ten in a row in 2010.

Dunfermline goalkeeper Owain Fôn Williams who played 85 matches for Caley Thistle between 2015 and 2017 feels that the match against his old club is, somewhat bizarrely, an opportunity to prove that the Pars can compete in the Championship by putting on a good performance against the pacemakers, he told the media:-

“It is always an opportunity and I don’t say that cheaply because it is a game against Inverness. Every time you play, every time you stand on that pitch, there is an opportunity to win three points, home or away. It just works out that it is Inverness this week who have won five games. So it definitely is an opportunity on Saturday and hopefully we can take it.”

It would be a great contribution to the cause if the Dunfermline defence could pull off its first clean sheet of the season and it is something that collectively the team would love to achieve agreed Owain:-

“100 per cent, you are bang on. It is a foothold, a baseline to thrive on. However we have to respect Inverness, they are on form and they are top of the league. They are really flying, they have five wins and not lost a game in the league this season.

“Credit to them, we have to respect that but this is East End Park that they are coming to so this is our fortress and we need to turn it into a fortress again.”

Dunfermline are playing a different way this season, a keeping-the-ball style as the tall Welsh keeper termed it:-

“We are trying to suck the opposition into areas of the pitch so we can release our more attacking players in a better area of the pitch with more room to be able to turn and take it to the opposition.

“The problem when we have been doing that is we have then been open as a team maybe at the wrong times. Hence some of the goals on Saturday happened. We work on this day in day out in training and when we try and release the ball, we try and release it to a more forward thinking player - try to get them on the ball - so that they have space and time.

“It looks like we are putting the pressure on ourselves but you have to appreciate the style of football that we are trying to play. By trying to do the right thing you are going to be exposed in different areas just like if you were playing a different style of football. You are going to be exposed in a different way.”

Results have created pressure on the team but the 34 year old keeper suggested that when you are working in football, there is alway pressure:-

“It is the nature of the beast if you like. Expectation, especially at this football club is massive. I see them bigger than ever this season because of possibly the league that we are in and the teams in it. We haven’t as many points as we would have liked on the board.

“At the beginning of the season I’m pretty sure that you would have fancied your chances against anyone but football is a weird game and it doesn’t work like that. We have come up against a handful of teams now that have been really tough ones to play against.”

Reflecting back on pre Covid games at East End Park, Owain believes the home fans can play a part to help the team this Saturday:-

“One million per cent. I have said this before, I have been lucky enough to see how our fans can be when they are right behind the team, when the team is flying.

“I know that is very difficult right now, I totally get that, however we need to remain focused. We need to find a togetherness because if you have those two and a belief, then there is no doubt that we can turn this place into a fortress but we do need to get everyone together and remain focused on the job.”

Related Stories

• Preview Inverness CT
• DAFC v Inverness CT - Ticket Information
• Manager on Thursday
• Supporters` Information v Inverness CT