Battle cry from Steven Lawless
Monday, 10th Jan 2022“Show grit or it will be a long season. Hopefully this is the wake up call that we needed.”
When Steven Lawless signed for Dunfermline he brought with him a record of 381 senior matches and now having made two starts for the Pars he feels that he will have to draw on all his experience to drag his new club out of the relegation zone. He highlighted the spirit shown during his two seasons at Livingston as the best example of what Dunfermline needs:-
“I think my experience could be helpful if you look at the teams that I have played for. Look at Livingston, that is the one thing that they have got in abundance - the desire, hunger and they work for everybody.
“Hopefully I can bring that aspect into it and get the boys working that way because footballing wise I think we could be really good. But we need that dirty side of the game where we earn the right to play and all working for each other. That is what we need to get.
“We are all aware of what we need, there were words spoken after the game that were needed to be honest. Hopefully we can all pull together and get ourselves up the table. At the end of the day we just need to get points on the board. That breeds confidence and that can help us going forward.”
Steven admitted that there is a lot of work to be done but stressed:-
“You can be the best team in the world but if you don’t do the ugly side of the game then its going to come back and bite you in the butt. We know what we need to work on, what we need to improve. We need to show a bit of togetherness and a bit of grit and aggression on the park.”
After the 5-0 thrashing at Morton, Steven pointed out that the first half had not been all bad and thought that Dunfermline were the better team on the ball. Certainly half time stats showed the visitors were the team with the greater possession in the first 45 minutes but it is all very well. He continued:-
“We had a couple of half chances but their goals were pretty plain and simple. We were not dealing with first balls and maybe not throwing our bodies in front of the first shot. These are things that if you don’t do well, they come back and cost you especially at this level in Scotland.
“We need to find that side of the game quickly and hopefully it will be there for the weekend because, as the gaffer says, if things like that go against you it doesn’t instil it in you for the next game and show grit, it will be a long season. Hopefully this is the wake up call that we needed.”
The team showed a naivety in conceding silly goals and the 30 year old who started his career at Motherwell added:-
“We have things that we need to work on to tighten up. If we can sort that side of our game I think we could be good enough to move up the table but that is the basics. That is what we need to work on, the foundations. We need to work hard to get that because it is not easy to instil in players.”
Steven claimed the team knows that is what they need and hopes that they can work towards that and turn the corner quickly. That urgency did seem to hit home in the post match dressing room discussions:-
“There were definitely words said, there was no pointing the finger at anybody, we know that it is a team effort. It is not one person who needs to get the desire and hunger to throw your body in front of the ball or win your tackles and win your battle against your opposite number. That is just basics but that is what we need to be doing.
“We need to go into every game thinking that it is a battle and then let our football do the talking. If we don’t go into it thinking that it’s going to be a battle and try to win that battle then it will be a long season.”
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