Dom would trade goal for three points
Wednesday, 27th Oct 2021“I will play anywhere that I’m asked, put in a shift and everything is geared towards doing well for the team and getting the rewards.”
Pars midfielder Dom Thomas really enjoyed scoring a cracking goal to put Dunfermline one up against Raith Rovers just five minutes into the second half but he claimed that he would readily trade it for the three points. To lose an equaliser the 25 year old felt was particularly sore as it came just two minutes from the end of the ninety. He said that he thought that the team had worked so hard that they deserved more:-
“We did our job and played really well, so to not get the three points it hurts that bit more, especially losing it that late on and in that manner. As I said to the boys, we have to take this hurt into Saturday’s game at Arbroath. We need to go and get those three points.”
The match might have been put beyond Raith had Dom had not been denied a second goal just seven minutes before Brad Spencer netted the equaliser when former Kilmarnock team mate, keeper Jamie Macdonald pulled off a great save. Dom felt that he had struck a really good attempt:-
“Especially on my right foot, I thought it was going in but it was a great save from Jama. It definitely was a safe but I don’t know what the ref thought there. Getting the three points was the most important thing and falling short that late on is sick.”
Dom signed for Dunfermline in July 2020 having initially signed on loan and playing eight matches between January 2020 and the lockdown season end in March. The former Motherwell youth moved to Kilmarnock in the summer of 2017 had benefitted from two loan periods at Queen of the South and one at Dumbarton but he has now played more games for Dunfermline than for any of his other four clubs and his next league start will be a milestone, 100th in the league. His experience gives him a sense that a change in the fortunes of Dunfermline Athletic is approaching:-
“We were two or three minutes away from getting the three points there. We need to brush up on a few things, keep working hard and keep doing the stuff that has been working for us. When that all comes together I do feel that we will go on a run, we will get those three points and we will look back and learn from this time.”
This Dunfermline side have now drawn six of their last seven matches and are unbeaten in the last three but Dom knows that the Pars fans are as desperate as the players for a first league win:-
“I know that it is hard for the fans right now not getting the points which every fan wants. If you look past that you can see the positives and the boys know that. We have been playing well and I really do feel that we have turned a corner, soon enough you get the rub of that green and it turns into three points and you go on a wee run.
“We have been that close in the past three games. I thought that we have played really well and been the better team against three good oppositions who are right up there but if you don’t get the three points it is pointless really.”
Right from the kick off Dom looked as though he was really up for the match. Attacking the goal at the McCathie Stand end in the first half the support of the big number of very vocal fans in the North West Stand seemed to spur Dom on from the very start:-
”I know what I need to do and I know how much it means to the fans to go and put on a performance to try and get the three points. If I am doing that I am happy, I am working hard for the team and chipping in with goals and assists. It is all about getting that win and getting us off the bottom.
“I think that we are more than capable of going on a run. They are a great group of boys, great quality, they work hard and in football when things are not going for you, you don’t get these breaks.
“We will just keep plugging away and we will get these breaks. The way that we are playing we deserve three points. I know nothing is a given in football but we will keep working hard and doing the right things and hopefully those three points come.
“In football everybody knows you need to work hard in training and on match day. No matter how the results have been, I don’t think anybody can question how hard the boys are working to get the three points. Everybody is chipping in together, it is a great dressing room and we are as hurt as anybody. It is personal for me, I don’t want to go home with a point when it should have been three and thinking about that all night.
“We just want Saturday to come quick enough so that we can get back to it, go and put the wrongs right and get the three points.”
Dom has started just five of the Pars eleven league matches this season and been used as a substitute five times but he feels that he has worked hard to get back in the team after he failed to make the starting eleven for a run of six matches until his goalscoring return against Kilmarnock:-
“The biggest thing in football is switching off to everything and be mentally solid. That is something that I deal with quite well, when I’m out of the team I just have to keep plugging away, train hard everyday and as the manager always says, he picks the team on training. When you are in every day it is a chance to impress and I feel that I have always worked hard in training and I think you can see that on the pitch now.
“Every football player wants to play football, when you are out of the team it is hard and you just need to keep going. Obviously getting back in with a couple of goals now you get the rewards. For me I get back into training, recover and train on Thursday ready for the game on Saturday.”
Last season the team shaped up more often than not with Dom Thomas on the left and Ryan Dow on the right side of midfield. This season when the have played together it has had the opposite view. Dom explained:-
“There has been a slight change just to account for the way the gaffer likes to play. He likes his players coming inside and that’s basically the way we got the goal. Ryan comes inside, I come inside, we link up and we get the goal.
“Playing wide is great so it is good to be able to change up your game and opponents don’t really know if you are staying wide or coming in when you play various positions. I like that freedom side to it and it worked against Raith.
“When I was playing in the middle I enjoyed it. I was seeing plenty of the ball in there but I have that creative part that I can show more when I am out wide. Obviously the boys who are playing in midfield now are doing a great job.
“As long as the team is working together then I would play anywhere except playing in goal maybe. I don’t think that would suit me. I will play anywhere that I’m asked, put in a shift and everything is geared towards doing well for the team and getting the rewards.”
Dom Thomas also spoke to ParsTV
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