Manager Post Partick

14/02/09: "I just felt we could have been a wee bit more ruthless when we had chances towards the end."

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Jim McIntyre felt that his side deserved to win just on the chances created.

"We scored two cracking goals in the first half but gave away poor ones, especially the one from the setpiece. The other we didn't defend that well either.

"Sometimes you can give yourself a mountain to climb when you give away goals. Especially the first goal in this league, it is so important to score first. The character they showed was fantastic. They and they kept going and kept at it. I thought we played some decent stuff on what was a tricky pitch."

The gaffer was not unduly concern about going behind after just nine minutes since he considered the Pars had started well:-

"Ian (McCall) changed his shape because our shape was dominating there's. That tells you that he was not happy with the way his game was going. They took the lead and it was a terrible goal from our point of view but I thought the way they came back; our goal was excellent - a great first time cross in and nobody was at the back post. Graeme Holmes took a magnificent touch and then played just a lovely wee clip and a great header."

The 88th minute penalty gave Dunfermline the chance to score the winner but Macca claimed not to have seen the incident where Steven Bell was axed from behind by Ian Maxwell:-

"I couldn't see it from where I was but not one of their players complained. I just felt we could have been a wee bit more ruthless when we had chances towards the end. Especially the two great chances; you have got to square the ball for a tap in for one of them or go and finish yourself. Be decisive with whatever one you are going to do. Sometimes that can come back to haunt you but luckily enough we got the penalty in the last minute that saw us home."

Steven Bell is brought down by Ian Maxwell

Jim McIntyre was asked to return to the over examined Pars home form that is in contrast to the fortunes away from KY12:-

"I think it (away form) is the best in the league but we know that our home form is not good enough and if we do not improve our home form we won't challenge for the title.

"If you analyse it, it is not just at home, you analyse each game individually and there have been a lot of games where we have had the chances to score before the opposition score and then we have not come back from that. If you take the game two weeks ago we had a great chance in the first ten minutes with Graham Bayne's header and it was blocked on the line when it should have been a goal. David Graham has a great chance for the second half once Queens have scored there's. These are crucial points in the game.

"There have been a few games like that. Dundee at home, we had two off the post. Stephen Glass at home against Morton had one chalked offside that was never a foul. You can go on and on but the bottom line is we deserve to be where we are because that's the amount of points that we have gained.

"I am not going to bleat on about the home form. The home form needs to improve, it is that simple."

Asked whether the home fans reaction to going behind to an early goal might have exerted pressure on the team and turned out different from the kind of performance witnessed at Firhill, Jim replied:-

"I think fans are the same across the country. They turn out in their numbers more at home because it is a home game and if things are not going well they are going to make you know about it. It is up to us as a management team and the players to put that right. You cannot go through a season having the worst home record in the league and expect to win a title."

Now St Johnstone have a seven point lead on the Pars having played one more game. There are two games still to play against the leaders and the game in hand at Dingwall. Things are still very much in the Pars hands and the Manager responded:-

"We are right in there. We are in the mix and it was an important result today because obviously it takes us level on points with Thistle with two games in hand on them. That was an important result for us today.

Ian McCall felt his team were "comfortably the better team" in the second half although he conceded that Dunfermline had the better chances on the counterattack.

"They came with a game plan and looked very dangerous on the break. They had a couple of great chances before they got their penalty which was a penalty.  We had a couple of good chances but couldn't convert them. It was very disappointing.

"We have no divine right to beat Dunfermline. They are a decent side.  Immediately you are worried about next week because we have 16/17 players and that is Maxwell sent off, Twaddle sent off.  I certainly felt that we put enough into the game to get at least a draw.  If we had scored after all the pressure in the first 15 minutes of the second half we would have gone on to win.

"They were certainly dangerous on the counterattack, they defended very deep. We were a little gun-ho and so eager to go forward that we left a lot of gaps that they exploited.

"I have certainly not talked about trying to win the title, if we improve on sixth I will be delighted.  We had three decent claims for a penalty and you have got to think that one of them was a penalty.  That was disappointing."

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MATCH REPORT: PARTICK 2 DUNFERMLINE 3