Willie Gibson Post Morton

"Everyone considers that when Dunfermline won games last year we played good football but we didn't pick up enough points. Hopefully this is the start of winning some ugly games."

Willie Gibson felt that Morton kept Dunfermline out of the game for long periods during Saturday's opening league game at East End Park:-

"These are the kind of games that we lost last year. Ayr United came here, battled and kept us out of the game to go away with a 1-0 win. I know it is only the second game in but we have done what we didn't manage to do last year - that's to win rubbish games.

"Morton came here with a game plan to stop us playing and Morton were by far the better team. They had the best chances but we got a couple of chances Kirkie has stuck them away to win the three points for us. It is always nice to set up a goal; wide players have to do that for strikers. Give Andy a chance he will do that and I'm sure that if we keep Andy fit he will score a bucket load.

"Everyone considers that when Dunfermline won games last year we played good football but we didn't pick up enough points. Hopefully this is the start of winning some ugly games."

The performance against Morton was disappointing after such a good showing at Falkirk the previous week. Willie described the week:-

"We did really well at Falkirk and there were obviously high expectations on both teams going into that big derby game. Then we let ourselves down on Tuesday night against Queen of the South where we didn't perform but then again on Saturday we didn't do too well but came away with the points. Hopefully the fans will be happy with that."

Having missed most of pre season through injury, Willie was not surprised that he started the game on the bench. By his own admission he feels "a yard or two off the pace":-

"I missed four weeks hard work with the boys, I have done a couple of hard weeks myself but it is nothing to what they have come through. I am doing everything I can, like staying back to do more running to sharpen myself up. I think everybody knows that you can only get match fit by playing games. I have had a chance to play 60 minutes against Queen of the South on Tuesday and another 60 minutes against Morton."

Injury to Nick Phinn meant that Willie was introduced after just half an hour of the game:-

"We didn't have too much depth on the bench because central midfielders Steven Bell and Alex Burke are still injured. We put Davie (Graham) in there even though it is not his position. He did a good enough job but we brought on Neil McGregor, even though he is normally a centre half, to give a wee bit of bite. There were positives to take out of the game and the main thing is that we came away with the win."

Willie considers that David Graham and Joe Cardle are fitter and playing well so a place in the starting eleven is a little way off:-

"It is no use putting me out there if I am not going to last the ninety minutes. I expect to be on the bench but I will certainly work hard in training to put myself back in the picture.

Alex Keddie and Steven Bell have now served their two match suspensions and next up will be a top of the table clash against free scoring Kirkcaldy rivals, Raith Rovers. With last season's matches still fairly fresh in his memory Willie is looking forward to next Saturday:-

"It is always interesting going to Raith. The two games there last year were big games, I know that we will take a big crowd, Raith will have a big crowd and everybody will be up for it since it is a derby. We will go into it being positive and you just have to keep performing."

Willie will not want a repeat of this in the Rovers match last August

With Raith, Falkirk, Cowdenbeath and Stirling in the First Division the frequency of derby games is going to be fast and furious. Willie enjoys how the fans and players are up for these games:-

"Hopefully we can maintain what we have started because Raith Rovers too have started off really well so we have keep going from there."

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14/08/10  MATCH REPORT: Dunfermline 2 Morton 0

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