McCunnie - a Kenny Fan

"I like the way he likes to play football, we never really had a winger until he came to the club but now we play with two wingers every week. He is encouraging us to go forward and get at teams."

Jamie McCunnie still has to win over elements of the Pars support judging by the 'welcome' he got on Saturday but Manager Stephen Kenny obviously recognised a mission that the former Scotland U21 captain could fulfil. Jamie was delighted to talk after helping his club make the Tennent's Scottish Cup Semi Final:-

"The boys were doing quite well but I think the Manager just put me on to try and steady up things because we were 1-0 ahead. We managed to get the second goal with big Simmy and that killed the game off.

Jamie was out for 11 weeks with a broken meta tarsal that he sustained at Tynecastle on 28th October. After appearances off the bench at Falkirk and Tannadice illness then sidelined the 23 year old from Blantyre.

"I have been ill for the last two weeks so it has been a long time coming."

Jamie joined Dunfermline in August 2005 from Ross County and apart from an off the field incident that put him out for a few weeks was one of the few at East End Park to avoid the horrendous Dunfermline injury list.

"That was my first ever injury but it took longer to heal than was first diagnosed. It has been quite a frustrating season with the results as well. Hopefully the cup run can help us kick on in the league.

"We have a lot to do in the league but we are going to give it our all and try and get out of the position that we are in.

"This is the first Cup game I have been involved in, I watched the other two from the stand. I don't think there was as much pressure in the Cup, especially when we were playing Rangers and Hearts. We weren't expected to win. It was a bit different today because we were the team that had to take the initiative and go and win the game at home against Partick Thistle who play in the First Division.

"We have done great and we have a lot of confidence in the Cup. We treated Partick Thistle with as much respect as we would have treated anyone else as did the Manager. We worked on the usual things we work on in training. A lot of shape, setpieces and things like that.

"The Manager is very thorough on what he does and we just did what we'd normally do for an SPL game.

"He likes to talk to players individually. He pulled me in and told me what he thinks my strengths and weaknesses are; what he wants me to work on and tries to instil a bit of confidence into my game.

"I have enjoyed it a lot since he came to the club. I like the way he likes to play football, we never really had a winger until he came to the club but now we play with two wingers every week. He is encouraging us to go forward and get at teams. The position I play, just sitting holding lets the two wingers go. You saw that on Saturday, Owen Morrison and Adam Hammill were great. It looked two weeks ago that Owen would be leaving the club but he came back and did great. Quite a lot has changed since the Manager has come in and the boys are preferring it."

Jamie's introduction in place of Owen Morrison in 72nd minute came at a time when the midfield were struggling to contain Dick Campbell's Thistle. He firmed it up and after that the win never looked in doubt. Jamie enjoys that holding role and he felt that at the stage he came on, it suited Dunfermline:-

"Myself and Gary were told to just sit in and let Stephen (Simmons) get forward, he managed to pop up with the two goals today which is great."