Options grow for Saturday

"It is for other people to talk about Hamilton and bubbles.

Jim McIntyre has high hopes when his team meets table topping Hamilton Accies on Saturday:-

"Like any game you are looking to go there to get the three points."

Failure to prevent a home win would put Hamilton 20 points ahead and out of sight as far as the Pars are concerned. The Manager chose not to look at the distance Hamilton are ahead:-

"We are approaching it game by game, trying to catch the team that is in front of us. We are not looking in terms of where Hamilton and Dundee are because they are a long way in front."

Macca would not be drawn into comment either about the troublesome New Douglas Park artificial surface, also playing down the need to burst Saturday's opponents most talked about 'bubble' if they were to be stopped from winning the league:-

"It is for other people to talk about Hamilton and bubbles. At the end of the day it is another game with three points. We have had some good results and we will try and keep that going."

The Pars boss was able to watch as Hamilton took on Aberdeen in last Saturday's Scottish Cup tie:-

"We realise that Hamilton are a very good side and they are going well. They were unlucky to be put out of the Cup last weekend."

The 5-0 defeat at the hands of Hamilton in October were nothing to do with the current Manager but for his first match in charge against the Lanarkshire outfit Jim will go there with his game plan:-

"Hopefully it works on the day. We are playing well at the minute and hopefully we can take our recent form into the game and win the game. We know Hamilton have very good players; a good mix of experience and youth so it will be a difficult game."

Despite the fact that the squad had seen eight players leave through the January transfer 'window' Jim will be missing only Jim Hamilton from his last starting eleven, albeit before joining St Pats in Dublin, Jamie Harris played seven games for Jim McIntyre after he was made caretaker manager.

"At the end of the day we had to cut our squad down, our squad was too big and we were carrying too many players. Whether that means youth will be given a chance, who knows? We will just have to wait and see."

Injuries are not quite as critical for the trip to the west with Tam McManus, Stevie Crawford, Nick Phinn, Sol Bamba, Owen Morrison and Greg Ross all coming through Tuesday night's Reserve game. Greg Shields is back in training as well so suddenly things look brighter.

Jim confirmed the pre contract agreement that had secured Stirling midfielder Steven Bell:-

"I am absolutely delighted, he is an excellent young player who has done well. I know him from my time at Dundee United, I didn't think that he should have been released from there but he went away and worked hard to get himself back on the football ladder. He has done very well everytime we have played them this season, he has impressed me."