Managers Post St Mirren

23/09/08: "I thought if we could get down the sides of them and get crosses into the box then hopefully we could get one of our boys on the end of it but what a header from Graham Bayne."

MATCH PICTURES
Manager Jim McIntyre was full of praise for his team after knocking St Mirren out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup:-

"I thought they were excellent and they scored a couple of great goals as well. It was a good team performance; the defence was excellent and midfield worked their socks off. We didn't get quite tight enough in the first half in the middle of the park and we spoke about that. I thought we did that better in the second half. That helped get us up the pitch a bit and get us into some good positions.

"We got in good areas and Kevin Harper had some good crosses into the box as well. I thought if we could get down the sides of them and get crosses into the box then hopefully we could get one of our boys on the end of it but what a header from Graham Bayne."

Both goals were crackers with Simon Wiles smacking in the second only four minutes after Bayne had headed in the first. Macca was pleased that Wiles had taken the pressure off his strikers:-

"He is a wide man but he gave us a wee lift when he came on. At the time we were a wee bit flat and he injected pace into our play, it was much needed and for him to pop up with the goal - he has had two assists since he came here. I am very happy for him."

Kevin Harper played a large and leading role in the downfall of the SPL side and was probably unlucky to be pipped by Scott Wilson for the sponsors Man of the Match award. His boss felt that Kevin has plenty more to give:-

"Kevin has not played much for three or four weeks so he is chasing his fitness. It is not quite as easy to keep that going; two games in three days when he has had a series of injuries so I thought he did well tonight."

The delighted Dunfermline Manager was asked who he'd like in the next round:-

"I am just happy to be in the draw the most important thing is getting your name in the hat we will take whoever we are given."

St Mirren gaffer Gus MacPherson knew that the cup tie was going to be a very difficult game for his club against "a good strong team like Dunfermline":-

"We looked reasonably comfortable in the first half . They had a couple of longer balls that we dealt with comfortably. Sometimes you ask questions and you don't get the answers. A couple of basic balls into the box we didn't deal with them but you could see how poor it was after that when we went two goals down."

Gus MacPherson would felt his side might have got a penalty decision but would not attribute that as a reason for his side's defeat:-

"From where we were there certainly was contact with Jim Hamilton, I asked the linesman what happened and he said there was no contact with the ball but it was still not a penalty. It was a strange one but we are not going to blame anybody" he stressed, "apart from ourselves for a second half performance like that. It has certainly not been like us in the first couple of months of this season. We take it on board."

Gus could understand the frustration that the travelling support made known towards the end of the match:-

"I totally agree with them, I do not try and hide from that fact. The second half was extremely poor and in comparison to the standards that we have set, it compounds it even worse. When you have been to places like Parkhead and Tynecastle and given extremely good accounts of themselves, receiving a lot of plaudits. We will all take the criticism tonight because it is fully merited on that second half performance."