Managers Comments

26/10/12: JJ - "We want to get out of the habit of giving teams two goals of a start.

Jim Jefferies feels that his side were asked questions of them last Saturday by Morton but answered them greatly:-

"We ended up missing good chances at vital times and found ourselves 2-0 down. At Falkirk we always believed that we were capable of playing and scoring but this was a different kettle of fish because Morton had been flying with five wins. They had beaten the league leaders comprehensively the week before and have a good experienced team.

"One of their players came out and said we found ourselves 1-0 at half time having taken a battering! I wouldn't say it was a battering but I thought we were the better team in the first half. We continued to play in the second half but lost out at one corner, which is their forte - and at any free kicks they have a lot of dangerous people. They got the second goal and they thought that they had maybe cracked it."

Morton players have since admitted that even then they did not feel comfortable at 2-0 given that Dunfermline had come back from that very situation the previous week. They knew that the way the game was going the Pars were more than capable of repeating that feat in front of their home support.

"That shows you that we are building up a little bit of a reputation for ourselves" claimed Jim Jefferies, "but we want to get out of the habit of giving teams two goals of a start. Hopefully it will start this week and we will be two goals up with ten minutes to go and score another two to make it four nil."

Reflecting on the first two goal comeback Jim Jefferies felt that a derby game against their Fife rivals, at a time when things weren't going well for them, had proven to be the right game for Falkirk .  Jim Jefferies added:-

"If I was the Falkirk manager I'd have felt that Dunfermline was the perfect game for me because with the way their recent form had been, if they had been playing a lesser team - and I don't mean that disrespectfully, what I mean that a team that had been struggling as well this season, might have gone to Falkirk and after twenty minutes the crowd could have played their part. That might have been the case in our game had they gone behind.

"Everybody was behind each other which is always the case in derbies; our fans were were up for it and we came back from 2-0 down for the first time so we learned a lot about ourselves."

As Jefferies and his team prepare for yet another local derby against Colin Cameron's Cowdenbeath, the gaffer recalled the 4-0 win on the opening day of the league season:-

"We were clinical that day; we took our chances and Josh scored a wonder goal. We had a couple of set play goals and a wee break in the box for the first one."

Now Jim Jefferies feels that his side are a much better team than faced Cowdenbeath in August:-

"I am sure Cowdenbeath are finding their feet better but probably the score wasn't a fair reflection of the day, it was just that they found us more clinical but as I said to Mickey (Colin Cameron), that's what happens when you step up a division. If you make mistakes you will get punished and if teams make mistakes we have got players to punish them. That is a good situation to be in because we have the quality to work good goals but we also have the quality, if they don't do things right to go and punish them as well.

"We are expecting a tough game again and as I have said before, if we get one more than them everybody will go home happy. As long as we play well and keep playing the way we are. I do not have sleepless nights wondering how they are going to play. I just look forward to seeing them the next time they play.

"You get to the stage where you feel that the result will look after itself. I just enjoy watching them go about their business."

The Manager confirmed that Stephen Jordan trained on Thursday and came through that well. He is confident that he will be alright. Stephen Husband and Jordan McMillan joined in as well after recovering from a groin strain and a calf strain. Chris Kane made his comeback in a closed doors game against Kilmarnock a few days ago.

Dunfermline U20s will now play Celtic in a re-arranged U20 League match on Monday 29th October at Firhill, kick off 7.00pm.