Management Team’s new contracts
Thursday, 23rd Mar 2023James McPake and Dave Mackay sign contract extensions
The club is delighted to announce today contract extensions for the management team of James McPake and Dave Mackay. An agreement that commits them to the club until the summer of 2026. The coaches spoke as the ink dried on the new contracts with firstly James McPake saying:-
“We are obviously delighted that the club has shown the commitment that they have to us. I think it works both ways, there is commitment from both sides in the length of the contract.
“Since we came in it has been a really good place to work in terms of the way the squad has reacted to what we try and do. Results on the pitch have been good so far and I think we must stress that it is just so far. The fans have been excellent, which is really important, they have bought into what the players are doing. All in all it has been a good start but it is only a start but we are delighted to commit our futures to this club.
“Personally speaking for having worked in it for nine months you start to realise just how good a club this is to work for and how good it is to be in this environment. When you see nights like the Falkirk night and any away game where we take that big crowd, and ultimately the players and the work they put in, it is just fantastic.”
Assistant manager, Dave Mackay feels that the club definitely has great potential and he is delighted that he can play a part in achieving success:-
“When we came in the club was in this league for a reason. The results had been poor and the results had been on a downward spiral for a little period of time. That can happen at clubs so it was important just to start winning games again.
“We never said that we have come here to win the league or shoot up the divisions. Dunfermline is a Premier League club, yes we would love to get there but it is one step at a time. We need to make sure that we win games in this division and earn the right to be challenging near the top of the table, which we have done.
“We have put ourselves in a really good position but we still have eight massive games to go to get to the next step. We just take it game by game at the minute and it is a club with the infrastructure to be at a higher level but that means nothing if you are not winning football games.
“I have genuinely loved every minute here. We had a tough season last year at Dundee similar to what Dunfermline had experienced and just to come in to a fresh challenge has been refreshing. The boys have been fantastic, I cannot stress enough how much we have really enjoyed working with that group of players. It is a young group, they are enthusiastic, they are willing to listen and they work so hard as well.
“The improvement in some of them is down to themselves. We can guide them a little, help them with some coaching points etcetera but it is up to them if they want to improve, they have to be willing to put the work in. That is what every single one of them has done.
“The staff have all been so supportive, every single one that we have come across at the football club, football staff and those behind the scenes they have all been helpful and all cannot do enough for you. It really is everybody together. There is no them and us, you can feel that within the club at the minute. There is no them and us and I feel that with the supporters.
“The supporters have really bought into what is going on at the minute so it is massive to have everybody on the same page and you can go far when you have got it like that.”
James feels a bad experience from Dundee last season after what he considers was a very good job in developing young players:-
“We still feel that we did a very good job there in terms of the promotion and the promotion of players from the youth team into the first team, that meant more to us ultimately than the promotion. Seeing those players in the first team and it is still great when you see them doing well just now. We believe that we did a really good job up there with Martin Harty included because he was a big part of that.
“This game has a habit of kicking you and it can keep kicking you when you are down but touching on what Dave has said, to come into a club where the backing is there and the support is there. That support I don’t class from Board level down to the groundsman and I don’t class it up the way from groundsman to Board level. I just think everyone here is together and, no matter what your job is at this football club, everybody wants to do it to the best they can.
“Whether that is having the pitch as good as it is, which has been fantastic all season, or if it’s Margaret (Miller), Craig (Brown), anybody that you come across here just wants to help this football club. That’s what helps as well. We cannot underestimate the support staff, it is not just a group of players, myself, and Dave. There are people like Monty (Gary Montignani) and the work he does. The work that goes in is just incredible.
“There is never an issue. We weren’t used to that and when you come in here it just shows what the Board has done since they have taken over the club. That is credit to them but I think a lot of credit must go to all the staff. The Academy is going well, we have our own Academy again.
“When I got offered the job it was on the one condition that we could get Dave from Dundee. The Board backed me on that and went and did it.
“I had lost my job when I thought we had actually been on a quite good spell. My wife had lived through that with me so the fact that she sees a support network here and that’s not saying for one second that I’m bullet proof here and I could lose ten games and lose my job, that’s football but I think here, there is a real backing from the directors, from David Cook, the fans everybody just to get this place right and produce performances that we have been producing.
“Ultimately that shows by the crowds that turn up and the backing that we are getting. It all goes back to the players and as much of the credit as they can, I think we have to include everybody in the group - Mo, Sammi, Ian - of course I will miss somebody out but it is not intentional.
“Yes we are delighted to sign these but a lot of this is down to the work and the help we get from other people.”
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