Stephen Kenny looks ahead

"We need to understand why other clubs haven't come right back up.

Even in Cup Final week Pars boss, Stephen Kenny was looking ahead planning how to achieve promotion next season and how to be as strong as possible:-

"I am not really proud of the weekend against Falkirk. Supporters had to take a bit of abuse as we lost the game against local rivals.

"With Mason, Glass, McManus and O'Brien unavailable for this week and Owen Morrison injured we had to play in such a way. We had to experiment but there is a bigger picture and that's at Hampden. 17,000 of our fans will be fantastic. It shows the potential of the club.

"Last week with relegation as top of the form team in the league with six wins out of seven, we were very wounded but it was in such a very cruel way. Dorus didn't have a save to make but you have to accept your fate sometimes. We have to have the humility to go to the First Division and make sure that we prepare well.

"The Board have been fantastic really. They have been strong behind the club, they are saying that we want to keep the nucleus of this team together. I am pleased about that and it gives me hope for the future. We want to keep the nucleus but we have one or two players out of contract which we can't be certain on but the majority of players are under contract and we want to keep them and we want to be strong.

"We must make sure our preparations are decent. We have gone from a situation where we had 14 players injured, 12 injured, 4 carrying injuries to the lowest that we have had for a long time and now its just Owen (Morrison) and Bobby Ryan who has had a knee operation. We have very little injuries and a very good regime now. We are ready to move forward as a club, we are just gutted that we are in the First Division for next season.

"We are in Europe. If we can take 17,000 to the Cup Final, why can't you sell out East End Park for European games? We are in the First Division but we will be amongst the favourites to win it along with St Johnstone. The last team to go down and come right back up was Hibs under Alex McLeish and we have to examine why that was the case.

"If you look at England and take inspiration from England, Sunderland and Birmingham City have come right back up and West Brom might do so as well. The three relegated last year could come right back up but they are well treated in England. They have parachute payments and a good infrastructure around the Championship whereas in Scotland you are ostracised when you go down. Your reserve team is kicked out of the league, your Under 19s are outside the league and you are banished to the wilderness.

"We need to understand why other clubs haven't come right back up. Do that right and make sure that we are hungry enough going into the new campaign to be the best team. There are some good sides in the league so we must make sure our motivation is keen to come right back up, which it will be, and the quality of the squad is what we need. Once we have these things we will move forward.

"The Cup Final is something special. I want all the supporters to really enjoy it. OK our build up hasn't been good because of the relegation, because we haven't got players in key positions, wide players. We are going to have to get a shape that suits us for the game but we can do that.

"We have beaten Rangers, we have beaten Hearts, the Cup holders, we have beaten Hibs the CIS Cup holders. Rangers are such an institution, we beat Partick Thistle and to get to the final - you couldn't have asked for anything bigger than Celtic in the final at Hampden. Once you get there you have to try and win it. There is no point in going there and being negative. We need to go there and express ourselves. It is a long time since we won it and it about time we sorted that one out."