Managers Post Cup Tie

10/01/09: comments from Jim McIntyre and John Brown

Jim McIntyre admitted to being delighted to be through to the next round of the Cup:-

"Very much so, I think you can see the conditions today were horrendous for football for both teams. That was evident in the passing, there were a lot of stray passes today but I thought we scored two excellent goals at the right times."

After taking the lead Dunfermline came under a fair bit of pressure from the visitors and the Manager agreed that the game was very much alive until the second goal midway through the second half killed them off:-

"Clyde were never out of the game but I thought we defended well and our back four were reasonably comfortable. At the same time we cannot rest on our laurels, they are dangerous on the break Clyde."

Both sides had chances enough to replicate the league match scorline of 4-4 from three Saturdays ago. The cup tie was not as stressful for Macca and the bench as the last time they faced Clyde:-

"Not at all, obviously the last game was bizarre, that's the best way to describe it. It's a clean sheet, we have only conceded one goal in the last three games so that's a positive."

After Graham Bayne scored with an unstoppable shot that he later admitted he had not tried to place as high, Calum Woods paid the penalty for setting up the second goal by being hooked immediately afterwards.  The Manager explained his thinking:-

"We just felt that we were giving the ball away a bit too much in certain areas and felt that we would put a bit of experience on in that position, that was it."

Who would Jim like in the draw for the next round?

"I am just glad to be in the hat, I will take whoever we are given and we will look forward to it."

Despite the fact that Gretna and Queen of the South have reached Hampden Finals even though they have been First Division clubs , Macca has no such expectations for his own team:-

"Well that's the last few years. Each year is on its own but hopefully we can put a run together but you take one game at a time, don't look too far ahead especially in this game."

If you got a Celtic or Rangers would the Pars boss do anything else in the transfer market in January?

"Obviously that might help, that's for sure; if you knew you had the revenue of that coming in. That's a possibility."

Jamie Mole's debut as a second half substitute for Andy Kirk pleased with him:-

"He added a bit of pace to our front line and bustled about well to put defenders under pressure. I just felt we didn't turn them as much as I was wanting to, especially once we went with him and Rory (Loy) up there. They have a good bit of pace between them and with Clyde playing the three at the back I wanted to try and get down the sides of them. That's the way we got our first goal but we never quite managed to do that."

Clyde Manager John Brown felt that his side played well but reminded everyone that the game is all about putting the ball in the net:-

"Dunfermline did that. Especially in the first 15 to 20 minutes of the second half, we needed to get that goal. If we got it there could have been a different game but the second goal just killed it.

"I thought we dominated in the second half with some of the football we played. It's creating chances and putting the ball in the net (that's required). We never tested the goalkeeper enough and Dunfermline put us to the sword."

Was it a penalty for Muirhead's tug on Dave McKay?

"I didn't think so but in conditions like that today defenders are going to make mistakes. I was happy with the way we played just the goals we conceded were poor. We need to look at that but we need use our good play in the final third to put the ball in the net. We never did that well enough and I don't think we deserved to go any further.

"You want to get a cup run but we have a young squad - look at Dunfermline, they have as fairly experienced group there, they have been at this level before - these boys are learning and we have to put that to good use in the league starting at Livingston next week because league survival is our priority."