Manager on Friday

29/10/10: JM - ""We will need to play a lot better than we did last week in an attacking sense and keep the back door shut. We must cut out individual errors.

After an impressive 5-1 win over Stirling Albion in the first meeting this season, Manager Jim McIntyre will be happy to score more goals than the Forthbank outfit when they travel to Dunfermline on Saturday. Macca claims it will be a different game and there is evidence that the visitors have adjusted to the level of the First Division following their arrival in this league this season:-

"They had a fantastic win against Partick and a fantastic away win at Raith; they are the only team to beat Raith on their home patch. You have to take them seriously and they will have gained in confidence over the last few results so they deserve a lot of credit.

"It is our home game and it is up to us. We will need to play better than we did last week. Too often we did not pass it well enough.

"I imagine that Stirling will come and try and frustrate. I don't see them doing anything different; we need to have a lot of patience and need to move the ball quickly. We must work it into areas where we can create one on one situations and hopefully our better players on the day produce."

The Manager is still disappointed that he only left Dundee with one point last Saturday. "Nobody would have been disappointed with a point but when you get yourself into a two goal lead then you expect to win the game. We were no different; the boys were gutted but Dundee never had one attempt at goal apart from the two mistakes we made.

"The boys actually defended quite well; we have analysed it, gone through it and sat down and watched it - all Dundee had came from our own doing. Sometimes you can say to yourself "we never did this well, we never did that well but when you make the mistakes that we made, you just can't legislate for that. It was individual errors and we have just got to get on with it. What we never did was enough in our attacking third; we played far too many long balls and never got neither our wide nor midfield players on the ball in the second half - that's what let us down."

Jim McIntyre saw the away point as a positive and stressed that despite all the issues off the field, "Dundee are still a very good team."

"Look at their side, they are still good - the only overriding disappointment came because of the position that we had got ourselves into. That is why; not because of the result in itself. If you are offered a point before the game, most teams would take the point away from home. You are pleased if you are winning home games and picking up points on the road but obviously not from the position that we were in."

The Manager had no fresh injuries to report. Nick Phinn, Alex Burke and Jack Ross are all out, otherwise a full squad to choose from.

"Burkie is half way through his rehab Jack had his operation but it will be two months before we see him. Following his recovery period it could be another two or three weeks by the time he gets games. That's a blow for the Club but a major blow for Jack. He has come here and not featured yet."

One thing Jack Ross has got however is a Manager who knows how he feels:-

"The same thing happened to me when I came here - I got injured right away and never made my debut for seven months. He definitely has somebody who knows how he feels. Noboby feels worse about it than he does but that's football. There was nothing wrong with his knee before he came here; he just caught his leg in the turf and that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes."

Macca acknowledged that a home match against Stirling is a match that his side are expected to win but it doesn't always work out like that.

"We will need to play a lot better than we did last week in an attacking sense and keep the back door shut. We must cut out individual errors - that's four that we have had, two at Queen of the South and two at Dundee. But to be honest the defence have done really well, the slip was unfortunate, Chris Higgins foot just gave way. The boy has done well for us."