Michael McGlinchey Post St Johnstone

Debut for on loan Celtic player

Michael McGlinchey joined Dunfermline on Friday, on loan from Celtic until mid January.  He spoke after his Pars debut against St Johnstone:-

"I enjoyed my debut. I was looking forward to getting on and round about half time I was getting ready to come on.  When he put me on I was delighted to get twenty minutes."

Stephen Kenny had forewarned the New Zealand born 20 year old that he would not start:-

"I had hoped to be on from the start but he had a talk with me today and said it wouldn't be too fair on me if things didn't go too well and I'd have a lot of pressure on my shoulders if it didn't.  And then I don't really know too many of the guys so far and he just wanted me to get a good week in training before I can start a game."

The move to the First Division club came swiftly following his SPL Reserve game in midweek:-

"I had a reserve game, I think it was Wednesday against Motherwell, I played pretty well and I scored and I got told that the gaffer was at the game. The next day I got a phone call from Willie McStay telling me that he was interested in taking me until January with an option of maybe going further and I was delighted with it. I just want to play first team football."

For Michael it was an easy decision to make and would he be ab;e to bear the pressure that Dunfermline are under?

"Definitely. I feel I've got all I can out of the reserves and I really want to take a step forward. I guess there is pressure but that's what I want. Being a footballer I'll take it in my stride."

Last season his team mate Jim O'Brien spent the latter half of the season at East End Park and the favourable report he received back from his friend meant there had been no hesitation in travelling east:-

"Jim was here last year and really enjoyed it and did quite well for them and hopefully I can do the same.  I'm pals with Jim, he's from my area so I speak to him all the time. He loved it, being a part of the first team environment. He didn't know anything about it but he's always said it was brilliant to be here.

"I know I'm in the shop window here, I know my chance might never come at Celtic, so I'm really just out to prove a point to everybody who can come to the games and watch. If it's at Dunfermline or there are people in the stand that can take a chance on me, I'm just putting myself about."

Had Celtic said anything about your situation?

"No. I've got a year and a half left, I know it's going to be very tough to get into Celtic and I guess it's not a race it's a marathon, if you get in there you need to stay there and hopefully this can help me do that.  In the reserves you only get a game every two weeks and the first team players coming back and some of them are maybe not as interested as the young boys trying to make an impression. Here you're fighting for points every week and it's brilliant today the experience I got."

Michael was asked if was expecting to enter a gloomy dressing room:-

"I was kind of but the boys are still full of banter and they looked as if they were enjoying training yesterday. All you have to do is look around the squad and you can see that every one of them's played in the SPL. They've got a really good squad and all they have to do is win a game and they'll kick on from there I feel.

"I've heard that the First Division is pretty long ball but I felt that we passed the ball about, so did St Johnstone to be fair. I was quite impressed by the football played."

Michael is aware that his first start could be a cup final:-

"I guess it could be. I'll just have to show the gaffer in training that he can trust me to play."

Have you noticed that the manager's under pressure?

"I only met him this week so I don't know what he was like before, but he comes across as knowing what he's talking about and he gets the best out of his players, I feel. He did a lot of shouting and bawling before the game to get people going. I feel as if it worked today because the performance was much better compared to a few weeks ago.

"I've never really been in a dressing room like that, you usually get talked to more, but he just came in and started having a go, telling people they'd need to buck up their ideas and it seemed to work."