Paul Allan back to make point

“You don’t want to get caught out and come away with nothing. A point in the end, we will take it

Eight months after his last match, Dunfermline midfielder Paul Allan was a little surprised but truly delighted to be thrown on as a half time substitute in the League One match against FC Edinburgh on Saturday.

“Obviously it was a wee bit unexpected with the change at half time but I’m always happy to get back on the pitch and to get 45 minutes.”

While Paul was happy on a personal note to be back playing after a serious stress fracture that required an operation on the outside of his foot, the overwhelming feeling both on and off the park was that of disappointment:-

“It was another chance to go and get three points at home, but sadly we just couldn’t get there in the end. We didn’t really create enough in both halves I would say. We didn’t test the goalie as much as we’d want to. It’s another point and we move on to next week and hopefully do better then.”

The Reserve League Cup match against Queen of the South last Tuesday provided Paul with game time. His last first team appearance was against FC Edinburgh on 6th August last year and that came on the back of playing every minute of the previous four Dunfermline games. His injury was a severe blow and it was coincidental that his return came against the same opponents. It was predicted to be a tough one and a fairly physical Edinburgh side did not let anyone down. Paul recalled:-

“The game through there the first time was excellent and it was better conditions to play in as well. On Saturday we expected them to sit in and make it hard for us to break down. It did turn into a bit of a scrappy game which I think was brought on by some of the tackles.

“It was a bit heated at times but we tried to take the sting out of it as much as possible by keeping the ball on the ground and moving it. We just couldn’t break them down and I think that brought on the scrappy side of the game. The way it panned out was because we couldn’t break them down.

“We should be ready for that, we should expect it. It was just frustrating out there, things weren’t really falling for us and we couldn’t create much. We had a lot of the ball and they were just trying to play on the counter.

“We tried to go wide as much as possible because Kane (Ritchie-Hosler) was getting a lot of joy and doing well putting good crosses into the box. That looked the best route to get a goal but unfortunately we couldn’t get one in the end.”

While the Pars pushed for the most part of the second half there was a threat as defenders Aaron Comrie, Kyle Benedictus and Ewan Otoo were at times left one v one at the back. Paul was reassured playing alongside Paul McGowan who made his starting debut for Dunfermline in this match:-

“It was slightly dangerous because we were pushing for the three points and you don’t want to get caught out and come away with nothing. A point in the end, we will take it but we needed to be careful not to get caught on the counterattack.

“Paul McGowan helps a lot, he talks a lot on the pitch, he talks you through the game and with the experience that he has got it’s good to play alongside him. Hopefully there is more to come for the two of us and we can just take it on into next week”

This season hasn’t exactly gone to plan as far as 23 year old Paul Allan is concerned and naturally he hopes to play a big part in the final eight league games:-

“I only played the first two league games of the season. I need to make up for lost time and try and play as much game time until the end of the season.”

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