Pars left in need of a turn

“We need to take every advantage we can get, take it into the game and hope for the best result.”

Dunfermline now sit ninth, one point below Ayr United and Friday night’s fixtures will determine whose season continues into May. The defeat away to Partick Thistle on Saturday “wasn`t the result we wanted” stand in skipper Steven Lawless told the media after the game at Firhill that his team is now relying on a good turn from his former club:-

“We knew what type of game it was going be with the surface, we knew what we needed to do. I didn`t think there was too much in it, but it was a really slack goal to lose. That turned out to be the difference. We are disappointed not to even get a draw out it, but we still have it all to play for on Friday.”

The last fixture of Championship season brings Queen of the South to East End Park and a late own goal in their final home match that earned Ayr United a draw, unluckily sealed the Dumfries club’s relegation to League One. Ayr United moved one point above Dunfermline as a consequence and now the Fifers need to better Ayr’s result at home to Partick Thistle to avoid the Championship play offs. Steven continued:-

"We are prepared for it. We`ve got a massive game at home to Queens and we need to take full advantage of the atmosphere and our own pitch. Our record at home has been good in recent times, our aim is to get a win and as many goals as possible. We know it is going to be a tough game but we need to go into it with as much confidence as possible.”

Whilst Dunfermline Athletic are undefeated at home in 2022, it is possibly their away form that has put them in the predicament they now find themselves in. Just three away matches have been won over the last two league seasons and Steven was well aware of the problem:-

"Our away form hasn`t been the best but our home has - we`ve managed to bounce back from defeats a few times. We need to take every advantage we can get, take it into the game and hope for the best result.”

Steven has started all 17 Pars matches since joining at the beginning of January but he found it impossible to describe why wins have been so hard to come-by whilst on the road. He said that he couldn’t really put his finger on why Dunfermline’s away form reads just two away wins in the league this season:-

“I think the fans do help. It`s been a great atmosphere since I`ve been at the club. They help drive us on, even when we haven`t had the best performances. We ground out a result and showed a different side against Ayr last week.”

After making 228 appearances for Partick Thistle between 2012 and 2018, the 31 year old still knows several of the Jags players and he jested about their game on Friday night at Ayr:-

“A few of the boys owe me a favour. We`ll obviously need to deal with our result first and take it from there and hopefully they can do us a turn."

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