Matt’s new contract adds gloss

“I am just absolutely delighted that the manager, and the coaching staff have all kept their faith in me, and allowed me to kick on to show what I can do on the pitch.”

Being Dunfermline born and bred Matty Todd does not lack support from the home terracings but it turns out that Pars manager John Hughes is also one of his greatest fans. Having just signed a two year extension to his contract the 20 year old told the website:-

“My mates come to every home game, they are sitting in the stand cheering the team on. My mum and dad are at every home game and my dad tries to come to every away game if I’m involved. The support from the stands on a Saturday has been brilliant and all that I can say is that we really, really need you to keep on backing us.

“Day in day out, week in week out the manager is always asking for me to do more, run more, practice with the ball, shooting, crossing - the wee extra things that will help me through my own game. The manager has been great with me and shown a lot of faith, I can only thank him for that.”

The new contract coincides with similar extensions for long term team mates Paul Allan and Lewis McCann and Matty continued:-

“I am delighted to sign on again but I know that I cannot rest on what I have done to earn that contract. I need to kick on again and help keep the club in the Championship come the end of the season.”

After Peter Grant’s departure Matty was given a chance in the first team and how has he grabbed that. He scored on his debut and has started all of Dunfermline’s games since his start against Morton on 6th November:-

“Steven and Greg put me in against Morton eleven games ago now and I have kicked on since that game and I am delighted to still be there in the team playing my part. It is not all about me, it is about the team we need to pick up some results quickly and after Saturday it is definitely a confidence booster.”

His own confidence has grown and consequently Matty can now rightfully feel part of the team but it has not always been like that:-

“The confidence that I have got is so much higher than it has been. I might have mentioned earlier in the season that I felt that I was disconnected but ever since that Morton game I have felt a right good part of the team. I am just absolutely delighted that the manager, and the coaching staff have all kept their faith in me, and allowed me to kick on to show what I can do on the pitch.”

The win over Hamilton Academical on Saturday was welcome but the performance was equally pleasing and Matty looked like it was one of his better ones. He agreed:-

“I was a bit more aggressive against my opponent and Saturday I felt it was definitely one of my better performances in a Dunfermline shirt. I am delighted that we picked up the three points.”

Having been subbed in all his previous starts this season Matty was pleased to complete his first full 90 minutes of this season and picked up a late ‘for the team’ yellow card. In fact such was Matty’s competitiveness he had opposition manager Stuart Taylor complaining about his challenges.

“I think he was giving me a bit of it all game to be fair! It is something that I have wanted to add, I have wanted to be a bit more aggressive, up to and against my opponent making tackles rather than be that nicey-nicey player who just wants the ball. It is something that I have to keep on adding.”

First team football has certainly transformed the young midfielder’s game and he agreed that playing in the Championship is a great learning curve:-

“It is a tough league as we all know and you are coming up against good opponents and good teams every week. Then during training we have players like Graham Dorrans, Steven Lawless and Big Mark Connolly was brilliant on the training pitch with everybody.”

Matty played in the win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle earlier this season and he knows that Dunfermline needs to build on the win over Hamilton Academical last time out:-

“Saturday was a good result, we needed the three points considering the teams around us have picked up points again. We can’t rest on that though, we need to kick on to put together a run of results, and that starts again on Saturday against Inverness. We have picked up four points from six against them this season so come Saturday we will have our game plan and definitely be ready to go and pick up the three points.”

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