A Rover Returns

"It would be fantastic and that would be four in four we've beaten them, but it's a big ask.

Ryan Wallace feels that its been a normal week and off the field affairs have not had any bearing on the preparations for the short trip along the A92 to Starks Park:-

"The whole steering group is in Leish's hands now and we've got nothing to do with that. As we've always said, we can't do anything to help that so we've just prepared for the game on Saturday the way we usually prepare. Obviously the snow has hindered it a wee bit because we have been indoors but it's just been a normal week. The boys know what's going on, Leish has kept us up to date, but it's just been normal and put to the back of our minds."

Ryan dismissed suggestions that the players deserve credit for the way they have handled the situation but he felt that they only acted in a manner befitting professional footballers:-

"We go about our job professionally and at the end of the day if the Club doesn't survive you need to try and get another club. You need to be as professional as possible and get on with things. There's a lot of things going on behind the scenes at every club, but obviously because its been publicised everybody knows what's going on at Dunfermline. We just need to be more professional and get on with it."

At the moment Ryan describes his financial situation as " getting by". He continued:-

"Obviously I would like the rest of my money but if the Club doesn't have it to pay us they can't give us it. We're making ends meet at the moment but times could get hard in the near future if we don't get the rest of our money."

Ryan signed a two-year deal at the start of this season and feels that the players can only wait and see what happens next:-

"Hopefully we'll have some news by the end of the week and it will all be resolved and we can get back to the football side of it.

We're a long way off the top of the league now so it will probably be next year before the Manager can build another team to try and win the league."

After losing track of just how many games Dunfermline have gone without a win (its five matches) Ryan agrees that it would be great to get back to winning ways against Raith Rovers.

"It would be fantastic and that would be four in four we've beaten them, but it's a big ask. We'll go there and give our all and hopefully come away with three points."

The Pars striker had a month on loan at Raith, he only played four times but did score on his debut:-

"It was good at Raith under John McGlynn but obviously I'm at Dunfermline now, so I put that to the side and don't really tell anybody about it! I've been to nearly every Fife club, Cowdenbeath next and then that's me. Fife derbies are massive in Fife, and everybody knows what local derbies mean. I'm sure all the players know what they mean and at the start of the year when we played them we had over 6,000 coming to watch, so players want to go and play."

Ryan thought that it was very generous of Raith to come up with a formula to reward DAFC for their fans turning up on Saturday:_

" I don't think anybody had to do that, so it's a nice gesture. Obviously they know the club is in a financial state so they've obviously gone out of their way to help us, which is fantastic. To think this could be the last Fife derby that Raith could play against Dunfermline is a terrible situation:-

"Obviously there's stuff going on financially but at the end of the day we need to concentrate on the football side. We can't think about it being the last game because we hope there are many more Fife derbies against Cowdenbeath and Raith Rovers. Obviously we've got the derby against Falkirk as well and we hope there are many more of these to come. We can only talk about what's going on on the field, rather than off it."

When Dunfermline went to Starks Park in November, Allan Walker was sent off in the first half and Dougie Hill at half time meaning that the Rovers started the second half with just nine men on the park. Ryan recalled:-

"Obviously you don't like to see men getting sent off - it's not nice, either for or against. These things happen in football and that's why the rules are there.

If you don't follow them you do end up getting sent off, so hopefully we can get 11 v 11 and come out with three points.

" Three points are three points in a derby match - it doesn't matter who you play in a derby match. Obviously at half-time we knew they were going to put nine men behind the ball and sit in and try and catch us on the counter attack but luckily Joe Cardle nicked a goal and we sat comfortable and kept the ball. Then we scored the third late on. We knew exactly what they were going to do but luckily we got the goal early because it could have been a frustrating afternoon for us."

Ryan scored a spectacular goal last Saturday at Airdrie but it was his first in eight games and he has scored only two in 2013, he would hope to score every week but at the moment it's just not coming off for him he admitted:-

"I'm playing in a wider position so I'm trying to come in off there and set people up as well, but I would love to score a goal at Raith Rovers because I get a bit of stick from their fans. I would just happily take three points to be honest with you. The goals don't matter as long as we're winning. I would love the goal that wins us the game, but if we win the game I'm happy with that."