Inexcusable and miles off it
Monday, 2nd May 2022Coll Donaldson- “We need to tackle this head on. There’s no hiding place.”
Apart from the Queen of the South players and their small band of faithful supporters, everyone left East End Park on Friday night really disappointed. That feeling was all the deeper because of the manner of the defeat, surrendering a half time lead and conceding two goals that reflected a pretty stodgy second half performance. The mood was shared by the Dunfermline players and Coll Donaldson vocalised that, acknowledging how they felt they had let down what was a great 5000 strong support:-
“We need to tackle this head on. There’s no hiding place. We had all those fans came to see us try to secure a place in the Championship — that is not right for a club like Dunfermline.
“We are where we are. And it’s because of performances like Friday. That is why on the last day of the season we were needing to beat an already-relegated Queen of the South to hopefully have any chance of staying in the league automatically. That’s miles off it.”
The Dunfermline players were aware of the half time 2-0 scoreline from the Ayr United v Partick Thistle match but Coll felt that is not an excuse for the Pars second half performance on Friday night:-
“It’s probably inexcusable given the position we are in and what is at stake. To come out in the second half and give a performance like that in front of such a big crowd is embarrassing really. It hurts. That was dreadful.
“The Ayr score might have affected us but it shouldn’t have. There’s nothing we can control about that. We knew what was happening at Ayr because after we scored, there was a great reaction. Then about a minute later, I was thinking, ‘there’s something not quite right here, for us being 1-0 up’.
“But there’s no excuse. What are we meant to do about what’s going on at Somerset Park? We did know and if it affected it, it shouldn’t have.”
The 27 year old central defender who is on loan from Ross County until after the play offs, is certain that the reality of Dunfermline’s struggle to remain in the cinch Championship is because performances like their second half happen more often than how they played in the first half.
“If we’ve not realised by now the position we are in, then Friday had to be the night - the final straw for boys to realise this is where we’re at. These playoff games, hopefully four, but it could be two, are absolutely massive. We have to leave it all out there because there’s nothing else.
“I think for the past few months we’ve maybe been thinking, ‘oh, there’s another home game where we can pick up points’ or whatever. Well, that’s done. It is on our doorstep now and we have to go out and deal with it.”
The chance of survival through the play offs was always the most likely outcome from Friday night’s fixtures but everyone would have been more comfortable going into the first leg of the semi final on Wednesday had the team ended with a momentum building win. Coll explained that was exactly how he felt at half time:-
“We said at half time, ‘let’s take care of ourselves and make sure we build some confidence’. We wanted that momentum going into Wednesday night. It’s not like we said, ‘we’re not going to stay up tonight, so it doesn’t matter’. “
Coll will now add to his sixteen appearances for Dunfermline in the Championship play offs and he will draw on the experience from three years ago when he was involved in four Premiership play offs games while at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He is well placed to advise on what lies ahead for his current teammates:-
“There is massive pressure. That comes down to individuals. You can help teammates but sometimes it’s as simple as this is our job and we need to do that job.
“Being able to draw on experiences is good. I didn’t feel too much pressure on Friday because I’ve been involved in situations like this. But it’s definitely harder at this end than the top.
“When I was in the playoffs with Inverness, it was a wee chance of going up but, if it didn’t happen, it wasn’t the end of the world. If we go down, it’s not the end of the world — but it’s about as close as you can get. The stakes are very high.”
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