Manager heads East

Another Fife Derby takes Dunfermline to Methil

Jim Jefferies is up against one of his former players on Saturday and the Pars boss expects Gary Naysmith to have learned a lot from all the managers that he has worked under in sides like Everton, Sheffield United, Huddersfield and Scotland. Jefferies recalled the first two :-

"We have had two games against them; one at the start of the season where we just won 1-0 and how did we not kill them off when we were definitely deserved winners. They had a wee spell which every team does.

"Funnily enough the second time we played them we were even more dominant but they had their spell and in that spell they nicked away with the three points because they hit a sucker punch with two goals. Since then there have been a lot of changes at the club.

"The manager has gone, Gary Naysmith has come in and I know him well. He is trying to change things around, bring in his own and build his own side. He has had some reasonable performances lately and a couple of good results.

"So we are expecting a hard game but we are looking to bounce back. We lost a game on Saturday that we should have won; if we play as well as we did for an hour - cut out the last half hour of mistakes - I will be well satisfied. That will be good enough to give us a good chance of winning the game again.

"It will not be easy and there is always an edge when it is a Fife Derby. We are looking forward to it."

Dunfermline will have to do it without Andy Geggan who is suspended. Callum Morris is back in training but unlikely to be ready for competition on Saturday. Allan Smith called off last weekend with a virus and has been off all this week. Faissal El Bakhtaoui is available after a two game suspension and he did well in the under 20s games during that absence.