Graham Bayne Post St Johnstone

"It was a left footer from outside the box but I thought 'och I'll take it'. It was a good feeling but I caught it nice ..

The smile would have remained on Graham Bayne's face for quite a while after registering his first competitive goal for Dunfermline on Saturday. It was the third of the afternoon but the Pars striker described it as a bit of a collector's item as far as he was concerned:-

"It was a left footer from outside the box but I thought 'och I'll take it'. It was a good feeling but I caught it nice and it flew in but the result was down to sheer team work and hard work all over the park. I thought we played really well."

Graham had scored a consolation goal in the Pars pre season friendly against FC Timisoara in Bischofhofen in Austria but he was unconcerned that he had failed to hit the net in the previous two SFL games and the two cup ties against Stirling Albion and Peterhead.

"I know what my strengths are and I believe I have been doing okay so far. The Manager and my team mates have been happy with me so far, but as a striker obviously you try to score as many goals as you can. It was a nice feeling."

Graham confessed that he believed St Johnstone had been one of the teams interested in signing him during the summer:-

"I made my decision based on a number of factors - family reasons, career reasons - I think I made the right decision. I am loving every minute of it; it is great playing all the time and the boys have been first class.

"I spoke to one or two clubs but my agent dealt with it. I don't really like that side of things. I am not really the type of person who goes in and says this is happening or that is happening. I weighed up my options and made my decision."

It could be that if Graham's ambition is to return to the SPL as quickly as possible, the move to Dunfermline might have been the correct choice but he was not willing to postulate:-

"That's just one result, we are not going to get carried away. That's one good performance but last week we were terrible. You would never have thought that we could have put in a performance like that. St Johnstone are a fantastic team, they have some great players and it was a good result for us but you cannot get carried away with one result in this division. You can see how many closely matched teams there are in this league."

Graham is already enjoying working alongside his new striking partner, Andy Kirk:-

"He is magnificent, he makes me look good, his movement is first class, his pace is great, he is a goalscorer and great striker of the ball."

Last week Andy attributed his success to Graham but he felt that the new boy was being a bit kind to him:-

"We work well and work off each others strengths and weaknesses. I can pick things up from him and I am sure he can feed off things from me as well. You can't get carried away by it, that's only three games that we have played together. We will just keep plugging away; as long as the Manager is happy, the fans are happy and team mates are happy that's all we can strive for."

Keeping everyone happy is a difficult task especially when money is involved. The team is on a tight budget and it is so important that injuries, illness and suspensions do not have a bearing on the results. Graham fully understands the limits:-

"Dunfermline have made no secret of it; there have been massive cut backs in their playing personnel and off their wage budget. That is going to have a slight detrimental effect with the size of the squad now. I think the Manager is right in saying that he needs that little extra back up to the players who are holding the jerseys just now."