Managers Post Cowdenbeath

29/12/10: JM "We are contenders; we will not get carried away - there are other teams in this league; it's a very tight league.

Jim McIntyre was naturally delighted with the 5-0 thumping of Cowdenbeath. After watching the match from the stand he made his observations:-

"I thought we made loads of chances, we moved the ball well and were excellent." He watched an impressive performance by 19 year-old Paul Willis drafted in in place of Wullie Gibson in front of Joe Cardle:-

"He is dynamic at getting at people; he has got pace, he is six foot two and so he has a bright future in the game. Although we have seen a real improvement in Paul this year on the training field he has someone like Wullie Gibson (in front of him,) who has been on great form. That has limited his chances and so has been a bit unlucky. Obviously with Wullie being suspended and an illness it has opened up a gap there. I wasn't happy with my wide players in the last game so we decided to change it and got the right reaction tonight.

"Goals change games and are important. To score early in the second half in quick succession gives you the chance to go on - you can either see the game out or go on and try and get more. The more goals that teams concede demoralises them a little bit. What really pleased me was the hunger to go on and try and get some more."

The win ensured that Dunfermline Athletic lead the First Division into 2011 and everyone hope that will be their year. Macca commented:-

"With teams not having games we have managed to get games on and get ahead which is exactly what we want. We have been up round about there the whole season and we have a chance. We are contenders; we will not get carried away - there are other teams in this league; it's a very tight league. I watched Partick Thistle here when we drew against them; they are a good side who have had a poor start. We need to remind ourselves not to get too far ahead of ourselves, keep doing what we are good at and working our backsides off and hopefully get a wee bit of luck on the day."

The importance of getting games is a high priority for the Pars gaffer who only needs to look back a season to see the effect of putting points on the board:-

"Look back to last season with Ross County and Raith Rovers backlog. In the last couple of weeks of the season they had to play something like six games in 18 days. Something as ridiculous like that can have a major bearing especially if your squad is a wee bit depleted with injuries; it has been a long hard season as it is and then you face that amount of games.

"We were absolutely devastated that we never got the game played against Falkirk (on Boxing Day) because the Club had spent a lot of money on the fuel. One wee bit didn't work; it was the right decision but it was really frustrating so we were really delighted that Cowdenbeath agreed to switch the fixture so that we got a game on ahead of another derby, another massive game on Saturday."

Cowdenbeath Manager Jimmy Nicholl felt that it was a tough result to take in the end caused by not defending properly:-

"Like at Dundee we were 1-0 down at half time but I wasn't too unhappy. We were well in the game although Davie Hay had made a couple of good saves to keep it at 1-0 but we had enough possession and at least we were in the game. The second goal just did us in.

"Everybody just looks at Cowdenbeath now - go and play against because they concede easy goals which is exactly what has been happening lately. The second one was a good example; it happened at Dundee and it happened tonight again. Our throw in, breaks down, simple ball over the top and it's 2-0.

"Because we are not scoring goals at this minute in time we are not giving ourselves any chance to take anything out of the game. We are really disappointed because we did enough in the first 45 minutes to suggest that it was going to be a lot tighter than it ended up. Once they are three goals up then they start playing it about. They have good players and their confidence just grows and they do what they want with us.

"I have some serious thinking to do and a wee bit of shaking up to do because that has been too long (without success)."