Reports of relegation are premature

When you are watching, doubts come to mind, 'play like that and we are struggling' but then after Saturday, 'if we play like that, what a chance we have got'.

Scott has seen the goalposts moved since his team's win over Hibs last weekend:-

"Before the game on Saturday everyone was saying would you sacrifice the cup to get three points in the league. Now that they got the three points on Saturday everybody is desperate to win the semi final was as well. There is nothing wrong with that but win a cup final and get relegated or stay in the SPL and don't get to the cup final. For us there is only one winner but there is no reason why it can't be both."

With Dunfermline's season having at least six, maybe seven games left if they make the Cup Final Scott Wilson is not looking too far ahead:-

"We just take every game as it comes, day by day. We don't look for predictions or anything like that. We will let other people talk about things like that and get on with it. We have to be realistic here and focus on the SPL. We are still four points behind St Mirren and still got a lot of work to do.

St Mirren are resting on their good start to the season that saw them top of the league after two matches and taking six points off Hearts and Hibs in September. They haven't won a game though since the 1-0 home win over Falkirk on Boxing Day but Scott is wary of just how little it would take to scuttle Dunfermline's revived hopes of SPL football in 2007-08:-

"People in the press are now backtracking and saying well you know Dunfermline have cut it back to four points, I could see them staying up whereas two weeks ago everybody had us relegated. If they win a couple of games we are back in the mire."

When Sunday comes with the result of Celtic's semi final against St Johnstone possibly putting the SPL leaders into the final, qualification for Europe could be at stake in Sunday's semi final. Scott with fifteen European matches behind him didn't quite see it that way:-

"If you got to the final you would want St Johnstone to win so we would have a chance of winning it. The way Celtic have been playing recently we would fancy our chances against them" he joked.

Stephen Kenny, the League of Ireland and even Derry City meant nothing to Scott before the surprise announcement of Dunfermline's new Manager on 10th November last year:-

"It is not a league I knew a lot about, I only knew Shelburne because we played against them at Rangers. He changed a lot, it was a different set up before and it has taken time. If we stay up everybody will say its been brilliant and its working. Who knows?"

With wins over Rangers and Hearts it looks like the Kenny cup success has followed him over from Ireland, Scott reflected how some managers have got a great track record:-

"Take Craig Levein for example. Everybody wrote him off when he left Leicester. He has done well at Hearts, he has done well at Dundee United. We have to play Dundee United after the split but they are playing like a top three team. It is going to be a very difficult game so some guys have got track records like that. Hopefully it is the case and it works here the same and next season, if we can stay in the SPL, we can be challenging up the top of the league and not have another year of relegation battles."

The survival prospects this season were not improved by what Scott described as a "massive kick in the teeth" when losing at Motherwell two Saturdays ago. But the narrowing of the gap has raised everyone's hopes:-

"We seem to be giving ourselves wee lifts here and there. When you are watching it, doubts come to mind, 'play like that and we are struggling' but then after Saturday, 'if we play like that what a chance we have got'. Basically the club has been up and down like a yoyo so hopefully now we can get a bit of stability. Nine points behind and its gone. Four points behind we are on a roll."

Such is the Pars predicament that everyone at the club this week cannot ignore the league as they look forward to Sunday's semi final. Cup competitions have nevertheless provided welcome relief and relative success for Dunfermline in the last three years Scott pointed out:-

"We have been fighting relegation but we have somehow managed to get to a cup final. We have always had something to play for and it has taken the doom and gloom away from what was happening in the league.

"You don't know what Hibs team is going to turn up; the team that turns up and beats Kilmarnock 5-1 and then you get the team that turns up on Saturday and looked a shadow of that team. David Murphy was talking about it saying that the cup final just polyfilled over the cracks at Easter Road; there was big trouble there. There didn't look like there was trouble in the game that I was watching them against Kilmarnock. On Sunday it will be that team that turns up rather than the one we saw on Saturday. We have to prepare for that."

Dunfermline pose Hibs the same problem since the cup win over Rangers their results have been up and down too. Scott suggests that if both the good teams turn up then the semi final could be a great game but admits that his starting place is not necessarily guaranteed:-

"I have been doing all these press interviews but I am not sure if I will be playing given the way Bamba and McGuire have been playing. Sol has been outstanding in the last two games and Phil did well on Saturday scoring a goal. If I was sitting on bench or in the stand I have not got a leg to stand on; you are probably talking to the wrong guy asking the wrong questions.

"It doesn't concern me. It would concern me if both of them were playing like donkeys and I was sitting in the stand but they are playing well."

Scott knows all about sitting in the stand at Hampden as appendicitis kept him out of the 2004 Scottish Cup Final against Celtic:-

"What can you do, appendicitis - it's not like it's an ankle knock. Appendicitis can hit you at any time, I thought I'd be back in two weeks but when they told me the next day that I wouldn't be able to play in the final I was gutted. The worst was that when I went to the final that day I felt that I could have played but they said the one bang on it and it could open up again."

The 2006 CIS Insurance Cup final hardly made up for that since Scott branded it a non event for Dunfermline:-

"It was probably the worst cup final that they have ever been to. We didn't even start. From the first minute we were terrible and we were lucky to get away with a 3-0 thumping in the end so we have a lot to make up for in this cup competition."