Craig’s cushion allows comfortable close
Sunday, 5th Feb 2023CW:- “I think if it was 1-0 it would maybe have been a bit more nervy inside the stadium.
Following Saturday’s 2-0 win over Montrose James McPake praised the contribution of striker Craig Wighton using words like excellent and brilliant while identifying the players intelligence and ability to drag opponents all over the pitch.
Dunfermline’s success and Wighton’s importance to the team are more than a happy coincidence. The 25 year old striker is the club’s top goalscorer having scored 11 goals in his 21 starts and seven substitute appearances this season. Craig’s eleventh was Dunfermline’s second and the 63rd minute goal gave the Fifers an important cushion as Montrose mounted an assault on the home goal towards the end of the match. Craig agreed:-
“I think it was important because you saw in the last fifteen minutes they threw everything at us. So I think if it was 1-0 it would maybe have been a bit more nervy inside the stadium. To have that cushion definitely helped us, we could probably have scored a couple more but then Deniz has had a few good saves as well. We can’t be too critical of missing chances.
“We did grind it out well. They did have a couple of half chances when they were throwing so many boys into the box, that was always going to happen. I thought that we battled away really well.”
Results in the three away games since the home win over Peterhead have been in the disappointing category but Craig claimed that the performances have still been good and that had prevented any feelings of pressure on the team:-
“I don’t think so, not from our point of view. It has been the same message throughout the season - it is one game at a time for us - and I think we still had chances to beat Clyde although we never played well on the day.
“Our performances have not been too bad, we have had chances and not taken them. We were still confident going into Saturday’s game and I don’t think we played like a team that looked under pressure. We were quite confident, ground it out at times when we needed to and played some good stuff when we were able to.”
Stewart Petrie’s Montrose team were direct and physical making it hard for the home side, Craig described how it felt on the park:-
“We just had to get the ball down and try and play it at the right times but I don’t think there were a lot of options or time to do that with the way they set up.
“It was probably a different type of game, it was battling away, second balls and stuff but I thought that we competed really well, did the dirty side of the game and deserved the win in the end.”
Since opening his account within a minute of coming on as a sub at Alloa in October, Craig has added another ten in the following 18 games. He recognised that scoring with regularity is important for a striker:-
“It is something that I want to do more. All the attacking players want that. I have had a run up front and managed to score a few. Hopefully I can keep that going between now and the end of the season and hopefully we have got something to celebrate at the end of that.”
Craig Wighton is within 90 minutes of exceeding his game time for any season since making 35 appearances for Dundee at the age of 19 in season 2016-2017. He reflected on how he is enjoying his regular involvement this season:-
“When I first came here on loan with Stevie Crawford I played a fair bit upfront. I think that was only something like ten games at the end of the season. I am enjoying it, I know the manager trusts me and has faith in me so that helps as well when you have that backing from him and the staff. I think we are all enjoying it, that’s evident to see and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Watch Craig’s interview with Jordan Burt for PARStv
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