Hammy dedicates goal

"It has been really tough. I have said ever since Saturday night that we should have cancelled all the games as a mark of respect. I would like to dedicate my goal to his family.

Jim Hamilton and Danny Murphy were team mates of Phil O'Donnell at Motherwell. Mark Burchill played with O'Donnell at Celtic, Owen Morrison with him at Sheffield Wednesday and Pars coach Hamish French played against O'Donnell in the 1991 Scottish Cup Final. O'Donnell played in three of the four SPL matches Motherwell played against Dunfermline in season 2005-06 so a large number of the playing staff have played against him. Everywhere you turn in Scottish Football there are O'Donnell connections and Hammy explained how tough had it been to play today given Phil O'Donnell's death on Saturday:-

"It has been really tough. I have said ever since Saturday night that we should have cancelled all the games as a mark of respect. I would like to dedicate my goal to his family. It is just horrible seeing it on the telly and I think it is going to be a hard hard day for everyone concerned on Friday at the funeral.

"My thoughts are with the family and I hope that they can get through it. It will be a long hard shift for them."

Jim thought that the Pars win at Livingston, only their third there in 14 matches, was a great result for the team:-

"It was hard fought. We started brilliantly for the first twenty minutes, we got the two goals in that time but you always know that away from home you are going to have a spell where you are going to have to defend. We defended really well, they didn't look like they were going to score.

"If they scored the next goal at 2-0 as happened on Saturday with us it would have been backs to the wall stuff for us. We defended really well and won the game comfortably.

"It was two good goals; Mark did really well with the first one to cut it back and obviously I laid one on for him for the second goal. We are getting a good understanding since we have had a run of games now so it's good.

"Six games undefeated, four wins in a row - it can't harm Jim's chances. If they are looking for somebody then I think Jim's your man but it is not my decision to make that.

"The boys were on a downer because of the results that were happening. Jim's given us that lift, given us that belief and the boys are responding to him. It shows on the park and we are grinding out results. We are not playing pretty but we are getting results though."

For Dunfermline the next fixture is going to be a really big one. Dundee sit 14 points above their visitors and the Pars really need to keep this newly discovered momentum going.

"The games are coming thick and fast for us" said Jim Hamilton. "Three games in a week - the boys are responding now - we have another big game on Saturday now at Dundee. It is a hard place to go but if we play like we did in the first half up there last time we will do alright.

"We played them off the park in the first half up there and we are looking forward to it because we are playing with confidence now. The last time we weren't playing with confidence but the boys are up for it again and hopefully we will go up there and keep the run going.

"We are not ruling out winning the league, we have got to keep believing. The way we are going we are moving up places every week, that's us up to fourth and just two points behind St Johnstone. If we can keep the run going you never know what will happen, If we win seven or eight games in a row then I'm sure we can be back in the thick of it because we still have everybody to play twice."