Hardie up for the battle

"We have been quite resilient in the past few weeks and it has been unfortunate that we have been conceding cheap goals.

Martin Hardie felt that Dunfermline matched Motherwell right up until the opening goal and had severely limited the Lanarkshire club's shots at goal:-

"They are a right good team chasing second place; they had a bit of possession late on in the first half and then when they scored the second goal they kept possession of the ball. Obviously the boys heads went down slightly but we know that we were in good shape up until that point."

The first goal slipped in under keeper Chris Smith at his near post when he couldn't stop Michael Higdon's attempt. Blame however would not be heaped on Smith for him to absorb it all, Martin continued:-

"We just have to deal with that as a team. I make mistakes and Liam makes mistakes by not holding the ball up. We are in it together as a team but it has been soft goals that have let us down this season. Goals like that are not happening for us at the other end; it is something that we need to deal with.

"We have a two week break before the next game to gather our thoughts together and hope to put in the same performance as we did against Motherwell before the goal went in."

The break is not something that Martin and his team mates have given much thought to. The break is a consequence of the William Hill Scottish Cup next Saturday and then the match against Celtic having been brought forward due to their appointment with Kilmarnock in the Scottish Communities League Cup final on Sunday 18th March. Training will continue as usual until the St Mirren match on 24th March.

The problem over only part payment of February's wages made do difference to the players' approach to Saturday's game:-

"We had a meeting on Thursday and the people who had to say something, said something then we went out training as normal. We came back in on the Friday and had a football meeting and then the way we played our game had nothing to do with that at all. There are things happening outside the footballing department but we just concentrate on that.

"We have been quite resilient in the past few weeks and it has been unfortunate that we have been conceding cheap goals. We need to make sure that we work harder between now and the end of the season.

"We will battle on until we start picking up points; we will see what it is like come the split. After that it is game after game and it is still there to be played for."