Management team preview Montrose

23/03/23: James McPake and Dave Mackay look ahead to Saturday’s trip to Links Park

Fresh from signing new contracts the management team of James McPake and Dave Mackay both gave their thoughts on Dunfermline Athletic’s next opponents Montrose. James started with comment on the last match which was a goalless draw at home to FC Edinburgh:-

“You dust yourself down and put it into perspective. We gained another point, we are still unbeaten and sixteen games unbeaten. Win, lose or draw you quickly put that game aside and move on to another one. We do it game by game and we have a tough test coming up this weekend.

“Looking back on Saturday’s game, we are disappointed for the right reasons because we did not hit a level that we are used seeing that group of players hitting. A lot of that is down to us as well but we still gained a point. It wasn’t through lack of effort from the players, you just sometimes get those days in football. We move on, they have trained great this week and we will be ready for Saturday.”

A negative from the match against FC Edinburgh was the loss through injury of Matty Todd and Rhys Breen. The manager confirmed everyone else is fit but described the duos chances as “touch and go for the weekend”.

“They have done wee bits and pieces but we will assess them again tomorrow (Friday). We will make a call on it but the squad is thick enough to handle that situation and we will see how it goes come the weekend. We will certainly not risk them if they are not right.”

Montrose are the only team to have inflicted a league defeat on Dunfermline this season but James would rather look at the positive side:-

“We have beaten them twice, they beat us once but I don’t think any of those three games come into this one. They were different performances, I thought that we were excellent against them in the last game.

“They did try and bully us a little out there and we stood up and showed that side of the game that we had to show. It is part and parcel of football. We will go up there, it will take a really good performance. We will need to be at our best to come away with a positive result and that is what we are aiming to do.”

Dave Mackay has been analysing the opposition, he added:-

“Montrose are a threat without a doubt. Rory McAllister has always been a threat at this level, he has been prolific through the years and even at his age he is still capable of causing problems. They can be direct at times but they play in a way that suits them. They get it forward, they have got energy and legs from middle to front.

“They are a team that can definitely hurt you on their day as we saw the last time up there. For seventy minutes there was very little in it until the first goal. Then they deserved to win it judging by the final twenty minutes. We had no complaints about that.

“Just like any team in this league we will treat them with respect and we know that if we don’t play as well as we can do, then we are vulnerable and can get beat. We will have the players ready, they have trained particularly well this week. They are looking really fresh and up for this one.”

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