Lawless spot on for Pars

“I find it easier than practicing penalties in training where you do not have the pressure and I have a good routine going that hopefully will continue.”

The first penalty awarded to Dunfermline this season was duly converted by Steven Lawless to earn his side one more league point. It was the 30 year old’s first goal for the club that he joined less than a month ago and he was delighted to have the responsibility of stepping forward to take the 80th minute spot kick.

A left footed finish to the bottom left of the Inverness goal made it 1-1 and speaking after the game Steven revealed that he is always confident taking penalties and had made a pitch to be on the spot kicks when required:-

“I have a very good record so I made sure that I put my name forward because I had a wee feeling that we would have a bit of possession and we would hopefully get a penalty.”

With the team sitting at the bottom of the league a goal down with just ten minutes of the match remaining it takes a bit of nerve to handle the responsibility but that never fazed the player who came through the Motherwell youth system:-

“I don’t actually mind that, I find it easier than practicing penalties in training where you do not have the pressure and I have a good routine going that hopefully will continue.”

Steven claimed that he should have been standing over his second penalty in this match as well. In the second minute of time added on at the end of the ninety, Kevin O’Hara made keeper Mark Ridgers pull off a save with his feet but there had been an incident in the build up that warranted a strong case for a penalty. Steven explained how he had seen it:-

“I felt that we were quite unlucky not to get another penalty to be honest. It was the hand ball at the back post. Just another cross in, it bounced up and the boy has hand-balled it. It was as clear as day and I think the linesman could have maybe seen it but we ended up getting a shot from it and that’s maybe why we didn’t get it. These things happen, we had already been given one so we will take the point and hopefully build on it again next week.”

Inverness had gone ahead in 39 minutes when Shane Sutherland had found the net from a Reece McAlear cross. The goal was not exactly against the run of play. Steven agreed that the Pars were just not in it in the first half and conceded that after the first 45 minutes they would have been happy with a point.

“We were a bit off it, we all knew that at half time. There was a bit of talk in the changing room about putting that into action when we went back out. We had a good reaction in the second half and had them pinned back for long spells in the game. It was a bit more like us in the second half.

“When we look back on it we will probably be happy with a point because we showed character to come back since we could easily have folded after the first half that we had. Most of the team weren’t on it so it showed a bit of character and a bit of grit that we are not going to let another Morton happen.”

The second half saw a much more attacking style from the home side and Steven continued:-

“We had them pinned back and we managed to turn it around. We showed that we can grind out results and not get beat and even when things are not going our way we can still turn it around and fight for a point.”

The manager has said that he wants to bring in one or two players before this transfer window closes but Steven praised the efforts of the team:-

“I think that we have a squad that have shown there and last week as well that we can play. We have shown both sides in the last two games and that we can fight for each other. Hopefully we can keep that confidence going.”

Steven has been reassured after the serious reversal at Cappielow earlier this month:-

“I think after the Morton game there was a lot of eyes on us. It was not the right mentality, we didn’t feel it during the game but to lose 5-0 you need a reaction. That has been the biggest thing for me. The boys have come out and shown that they have that in them. It is just a case of being consistent with it.”

Since that disastrous day in Greenock Dunfermline have defeated Hamilton Accies and now drawn with Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Although disappointed not to have managed back to back wins Steven felt the point was a good one:-

“It is obviously good, a point in the right direction. I think more so it keeps a bit of momentum going from the result last weekend. It’s another game undefeated and hopefully we can take the confidence into next week and build on it. We know that there are a lot of games to play so there are a lot of points to win and that is the aim. We will try and see how long we can keep this momentum going to pull us away from the foot and second bottom of the table.”

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