Stephen Kenny Post Rangers

"When you are losing and you have just come into the job - the things that you are trying to introduce, the changes - you can lose a bit of credibility if the results are not the best.

Victorious Dunfermline Manager Stephen Kenny was pleased with his team's performance but felt that the only difference against Rangers was in the finishing:-

"I thought we probably played better against Motherwell last week; we dominated early on in that game and created five or six good chances but managed to lose the game. Today the difference was getting the goals with god finishes.

"There was some good football; it was an attacking team with Jim O'Brien coming in. Owen Morrison supported the front two and Stephen Simmons got up forward from midfield, so we were quite attacking in the way we were set up.

"That meant that you give the opposition a chance, certainly against Rangers we looked vulnerable in defence. We looked like we could score but could concede. I knew from picking the team that anything was possible but I couldn't envisage being 3-0 up to be honest.

"At half time we said 'lets try and get a third goal' because Rangers will come at us and they do have a bit of quality. We could avoid pressure by getting a third one but I didn't think we would score a minute into the second half. That's the way it goes."

How had the Manager felt when Rangers pegged back the deficit to one goal with 22 minutes still to play?

"There was a long way to go; I can't say I was over confident because they had some god chances. Barry Ferguson hit the bar and they had us under a bit of pressure. With Chris Burke coming on - he is a good player - we knew that he would cause us problems because the way we were set up we had our wingers pushed right on.

"With Owen Morrison pushed up we knew that Scott Morrison would have his hands full because it would be a one on one situation all the time. They had a bit of joy there. Up until the last twenty minutes when we were just hanging on, the rest we played some good football.

Jim O'Brien on his debut for Dunfermline

"We had two nineteen year olds on the right with Greg Ross and Jim O'Brien; young Calum Woods who came on was only 19 as well so it was quite a young side for us but they did well the players. They deployed themselves very well with some very unselfish stuff. Jim O'Brien did very well, he was smashing - he only met the players for the first time yesterday. He looked very sharp in the session yesterday and I threw him in and he did very well."

Calum Woods in action v Rangers, Sunday 7th January 2007

Was the time since Dunfermline had last scored a goal - in 92nd minute of the SPL match v Celtic on 10th December - preyed on the team in the lead up to the cup tie?

"We did speak about it and there is a lot of irony. We spoke about 1988 when we beat Rangers here and we hadn't scored in five games in five games in that period. It was very coincidental from our own point of view. There were parallels to be drawn there and we spoke about that and the importance of the cup to Dunfermline."

Had Rangers dramatic week had a negative affect on them in the cup tie?

"I don't know, I am not qualified to say whether it had or hadn't. I am not close to the set up. From our point of view, we have worked terribly hard over Christmas and the last couple of weeks and got nothing, absolutely nothing in the games.

"I knew Jim Hamilton was critical of himself last week because he missed a very good chance to equalise against Hearts; it was probably easier than the one he scored with today. So I am delighted for him that he got the goal in the end, it was fitting that he did score.

"When you are losing and you have just come into the job - the things that you are trying to introduce, the changes - you can lose a bit of credibility if the results are not the best. From that point of view regardless of the cup, with the league our main concern I feel that result can galvanise our season."

Stephen Kenny continued to want to focus on the SPL but was drawn into briefly commenting on the Fourth Round Draw that paired his team with the cup holders in the next round:-

"Home advantage in the cup is important I think."

Having won the FAI Cup with Derry City back in December in an exciting extra time win over St Patricks Athletic, there is something about cup football and Stephen Kenny. With UEFA cup knock outs over Gothenburg and Gretna under his belt he was not going to count his latest success in his all time top ten:-

"To win a cup game - what is that? It takes you through to the next round of the cup. If you are managing a team that is going through highs and lows you are trying to achieve something credible. You are trying to achieve something, winning a trophy or in our situation surviving is real achievement. Knocking somebody out of the cup helps the club in the greater scheme of things but as an isolated win, no I wouldn't put it up there."

There must be even better times ahead!

Caretaker Rangers Manager, Ian Durrant said:-

"I thought we started very nervous - giving the ball away, giving silly free kicks away and playing into Dunfermline's hands. Big Hammy terrorised our back four just winning headers. You have got to be more resilient than that I think. When you play with Rangers you have to stand up and be counted in that department.

"If you defend like that and lose three goals you have no chance of scoring four goals to win a game. The sad thing is we should have scored four or five goals but that is beside the point. Fair do's to Dunfermline they took their chances and then dug in doggedly.

"You have to match fire with fire. We knew Dunfermline were going to come on top of us, we knew they were going to get the ball forward, we knew they were going to hassle and make it hard for us. We have got to react to that. It is not just about getting the ball down, playing football and looking lovely. It is about rolling the sleeves up and getting in about that. We never did that for half an hour but we never did that."