Chalmers ready and up for Ayr return
Friday, 4th Feb 2022“He has instilled confidence in me and he trusts me to get on the ball, that makes my life a bit easier.
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Joe Chalmers signed from Ayr United a week past Monday and made his Dunfermline debut against Queen of the South on Saturday. The 2-0 win was a much better result than the outcome on his last trip to Dumfries with the Honest Men. Naturally he enjoyed Palmerston Park this time:-
“When Ayr went down there and they suffered a heavy 3-0 defeat and that was Jim Duffy’s last game. So to go and win 2-0 was good. It was a great start, I enjoyed it. Obviously it was a big game and we were desperate to get the win. We did a lot of the good work in the first half and in the second half managed the game to see it through. It was an ideal start for me.”
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John Hughes and the style of football he wants to play suits the 28 year old midfielder and he claims that he is enjoying it and especially the training:-
“On Saturday the role that the manager gave me gave me confidence to go and get on the ball. He is happy for me to take the ball anywhere on the field that I can. He has instilled confidence in me and he trusts me to get on the ball, that makes my life a bit easier.
“We are not going to get carried away, it is only one game but on Saturday the team felt that it had a good balance to it. Whenever one of us wanted to make a run forward there was always someone to fill in. I thought that we managed that side of things well.”
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With Graham Dorrans deployed in a more attacking role that he has played so far, Joe was fully of praise for his fellow midfielder who always seemed to want the ball:
“Graham and some of his touches were brilliant on Saturday, . Every time he wanted the ball he was making good offers and you could play the ball into him. He has that experience of knowing where to be and the wee bits of information that he gives you, makes it all a bit easier.”
The result was a huge one and it launched Dunfermline up the table. Joe felt that is was important to make sure that trend continued:-
“When you look at the table and see that you are up to seventh place you know that it has been a good weekend. The boys had a couple of decent results before I came as well, we are just trying to keep that momentum going.
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“Once you get on a roll you just need to try and use the momentum and use the good feeling about the place to keep yourself going. You can use that to your advantage but it only takes one bad performance and you lose a bit of that. We need to concentrate and work hard to not let that dip.”
Joe who made 50 appearances for Ayr United between October 2020 and January this year, will return to Somerset Park less than a fortnight after his departure. He added:-
“The return has happened quite quickly and it will be good to go back down there. My wee boy, Nolan, he is two and going to Somerset will be his first Dunfermline game. He might not know what is going on. My first job was to change his Ayr strip for a Dunfermline one. He loves going to the games so it will be interesting to see what he thinks.”
Young Nolan might not have understood the significance of Ayr’s 3-1 home win over the Pars earlier this season but for the travelling support, management and players it was one to forget. Joe was on the bench that day but he remembers the game.
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“The two sides have been towards the bottom of the league all season and at the time it was a big win for Ayr to beat a team around about you. I remember hearing some of the chants and it wasn’t the best of times for Dunfermline then. I didn’t take too much notice of it because I was only focusing on Ayr.”
The Pars fans at Dumfries last Saturday kept in full song for the entire 90 minutes and the scenes at the full time whistle were in sharp contrast to the previous ones there as well:-
“I wasn’t at Dumfries that time but you see stuff and read stuff. Hopefully we have turned the corner now and we are trying to shoot up the league. In this league it is difficult, it just changes week to week and you never know what is coming.
“Hopefully we can keep that feel good factor amongst the fans, keep them with us because it makes a big difference.”
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Joe who has experience of over 200 senior games but discounted his ability to provide any insider information about the Ayrshire team:-
“They have signed a few players since I left so they will probably have a different look to the team. We have had these new players watched against Partick Thistle on Tuesday night so any information we need to get we will have got. If I can help in any way then I will.”
One place where no information will be exchanged will be on any text messages between Joe and his former teammates:-
“There have been two or three texts since I left from those I speak to all the time but that might go quiet this week. It is alright up until Wednesday because nobody knows anything - you are just training as normal - but after your day off on Wednesday the work starts on the game on Thursday and Friday. From then on there won’t be much talking.”
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