Dunfermline’s fighting chance
Monday, 25th Apr 2022John Hughes hopes to have selection problems for Friday night’s match.
John Hughes believes that his side has given themselves a fighting chance of still being in the Championship next season and all that remains is to establish who might be in that fight on Friday night against Queen of the South. He discussed the possibilities of Coll Donaldson, Graham Dorrans and Deniz Mehmet being included in the squad:-
“We had a wee bit of a dilemma in terms of team selection going into the game on Saturday, in terms of Coll Donaldson. We gave him right up until the last minute, and that was Saturday morning, to see if he would make it. Unfortunately, he never, but the physio says that with another week he should be there.
“That’s why we just decided to change it and chop it about a wee bit. We felt that, with Rhys Breen not playing a lot of first-team football, to come into that kind of game, a five at the back might have suited us a little bit better. And, to be fair, there wasn’t much in the game. It wasn’t a great game, it was a horrible watch, and it was disappointing to lose the game from a setpiece.”
The manager said that he will not make a late decision on the centre back on loan from Ross County:-
“I wouldn’t want to make that decision again on match-day, by waiting to the Friday morning, to see how Coll is. I think it’s unfair on the rest of them. So, we want him back on the training pitch on Wednesday, so that when he wakes up on the Thursday he says, ‘aye, I can go with that’. It’s not a case of training on the Thursday and then waking up on the Friday and saying, ‘no’.”
The squad will prepare the best they can and it could include captain Graham Dorrans who has been out for the last eight matches. The gaffer revealed
“He’s ahead of schedule, he has trained and he did a lot more training on Monday than he has done. So we’ll wait until Tuesday to see if he’s got any reaction to it, and if he joins in training on Tuesday he’ll certainly come into contention.
“I think he’s got half an hour in him but if you saw Graham Dorrans the last time we played down at Queen of the South, that half an hour of that kind of quality could be the difference maker. That’s probably what he’s got in him at this moment in time but if he was injury free I would be prepared to take that chance.”
Lewis Martin is out through injury and Deniz Mehmet who missed the Partick game, is expected back after testing positive for Covid. Paul Allan is not training at the moment due to a hamstring injury.
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