Managers Post Inverness

13/11/21 link to audio of Greg Shields and Barry Wilson’s post match comments

After Dunfermline’s first league win of the season and their first league win in Inverness for over 13 years, caretaker manager Greg Shields gave his thoughts to the website:-

“It is certainly a great result to come up here and beat Inverness, I never realised it was that many years that we had not won up here. I am delighted for the players, for everybody, for the fans that came up. It has been a long time, it has been a hard two or three months and you get into a little bit of a habit, into a rut and maybe the scenes yesterday of the new manager coming in to meet the players and talking to them, was the boost required.

“He has a huge presence, a big character and he is one I am sure the players will enjoy working with. He introduced himself yesterday and obviously today was in and around the players as well which was good.”

John Hughes left his seat in the stand at the half time interval, did he speak to the players then?

“He did, I thought that he was going to tackle me coming on the pitch at half time. He came in and had a chat with a few of them individually. Myself and Steven did the chat but he was in amongst it.”

One down at half time but it was a really unlucky goal to lose?

“It was, I was more disappointed the gaps that Gardyne got into to have the shot. When it came back the reaction to win that ball off the post and Mckay finished it. The first half was scrappy, it was hard and we never really got in behind them.

“We played two forwards with McCann and O’Hara today and we really needed to try and get down the sides of Devine and Broadfoot but we never did that in the first half. That was the chat at half time, we needed to play the ball forward quicker and earlier but we dwelled on it in the first half.

“We just couldn’t move it, it was going from side to side and we got stuck. The wee chat made the players start to believe in themselves a little bit more and you saw that change with the first goal.

“McCann got after them, won a few balls in the air and he outmuscled somebody for the first goal. It eventually went down the side and McCann will say he scored, I don’t know if he did - I’d like to think it was McCann - but fair play to the kid, it was him that started it. It was a great move, a good ball from Kevin O’Hara in the end and we just had numbers in the box which is good. The two of them and everybody else behind them, they triggered that.”

The second Dunfermline goal was a special goal as well?

“It was excellent, and that was the part we talked about at half time. Dom was getting into good little pockets in the first half but there was nothing really happening ahead of him because we never got to grips with making that run beyond. Dom fought his way in and weaved to score it and it was a looping curler that went in the top corner.

“I actually jumped up on Steven Whittaker there and I think I head butted him in the face and he will probably have a shiner tomorrow morning! Dom was causing them a problem. I thought Dom did really well today as well.”

In the six added minutes the Dunfermline goal came under siege as Inverness Caley threatened from corner after corner, it must have seemed an eternity?

“It was always going to be the case though, we sat a wee bit deeper and deeper. They were playing a lot more longer balls on to big Mark (Connolly) and Ross (Graham). I am just delighted that we defended setplays this week. It has been a big part of training and our shape and organisation, we kicked a few off the line. We got bodies behind it, Fonners came out and punched a few but it was just the overall desire, work ethic and just grit to grind that game out today.

“That is what got us the win. We were maybe a little unfortunate towards the end with Kevin O’Hara’s chance to go 3-1. That would have killed the game but it gave them a wee bit of hope,

“I was annoyed with the referee for the amount of time he played over at the end but so be it. I am not complaining, we are certainly going to enjoy this one because it has been a while”

You had Graham Dorrans back today to captain the team and take the place of Paul Allan?

“That was the talk through the week, he was not fit for last Saturday’s game against Morton. Wee Paul has done well and did a really good job but with him going in there and especially coming up here playing against the team that Inverness are, it gave us that bit of experience. It certainly showed in the second half with him organising the players ahead of him, he played a captain’s role today.”

How have you enjoyed being the caretaker manager for the last two games?

“It has been different, it has certainly been intense. For the last two weeks you didn’t know what was going to happen from day to day but myself and Steven are more than happy now to hand over the reins to John Hughes on Monday.

“He will have a huge impact. You can see that already just with his persona, his happy face and he has something about him. He knows how to chat to the players and make them feel like they are the best player in the world. That is certainly one of the things that Lewis McCann felt in the second half and I’m sure that John was in his ear at half time.”

Looking ahead to next week it is possible for a home win over Ayr United to move Dunfermline into sixth place but Greg kept his feet firmly on the ground:-

“We are just going from game to game. When you are down there you are just taking one game at a time. It was today’s game, it is Ayr United next week but we not looking any further ahead than that, we are just taking one game at a time.”

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