Smith Super but preferably not Sub
Sunday, 1st Sep 2013Two goals off the bench on successive Saturdays but 19 year old stirker Allan Smith keen to avoid being branded with the mantle of Super Sub
After two goals in two league games, Allan Smith still has his feet firmly planted on the ground but he has a great desire to pay a big part in Dunfermline's quest to secure promotion this season:-
"I can't get carried away but I am doing well coming on and the Manager is happy with my progress after injury. I was out for more than a month so I am just getting back fit and glad to be scoring. I hope it continues."
Allan was a substitute in all three of Dunfermline"s last first team fixtures. At Stenhousemuir he came on with eleven minutes remaining and scored five minutes later to peg back the deficit to just one goal. At Falkirk in midweek he got 27 minutes when he took the place of Ryan Thomson and on Saturday he replaced new boy Robert Thomson after 72 minutes and scored in 86th.
Allan Smith's goal at Ochilview Park v Stenhousemuir
The young man from Selkirk is keen to lose the super sub tag as quickly as possible:-
"I am playing on Monday for the U20s again and I need to keep ticking over because there is a break for the internationals. I am just going to keep playing and hopefully keep scoring goals. I played 75 minutes in an U20s game against East Fife but I have still not played a full game yet. "
Monday night's fixture is against Glenrothes (6.15pm kick off at the Warout Stadium) and there is a possibility that Allan may also feature in the U20s friendly on Thursday night away to Ballingry Rovers. These games might be essential as the striker returns from a torn ligament ankle injury sustained in the first pre season friendly v Hearts.
He continued:- "I trained for four weeks and then got on in the second half of the first game. I played for twenty minutes then that was me out again. All that hard work was down the drain. When the league games started I still wasn't properly fit so it wasn't the best start to the season. Now I am getting fitter and on the pitch."
The injury took five weeks to heal and continues to bother Allan who gets it strapped every day in training. He knows he needs to play a full game to test his fitness. Allan wants to start games but did admit that coming on later in the game has its advantages;-
"I do enjoy it because the game is open when I come on. It is not tight or long ball. It is more pass, pass, up and down - it is good. I like open play, driving at people and taking them on."
Robert Thomson and Jordan Moore have been added to the squad to relinquish Ryan Thomson for his makeshift deployment as striker but with Ryan Wallace as well as Allan chasing the starting berths, Jim Jefferies has created the ideal scenario.
"There are a lot of strikers now but I just have to do what I do best and see if it is good enough to get off the bench."
Allan has had plenty of time to contemplate the reasons why Dunfermline have not scored enough or quickly enough in games and has no doubt heard from the bench just what the Manager thinks about the teams attacking moves:-
"There are times in the game when we are not shooting when we should. We are overplaying it and should be shooting. When I scored there it was just the same as the Falkirk game, apart from the fact that I did not hit it as good and it went wide when I should have hit it closer to the goal. I am just happy with the way I am playing and hopefully it continues."
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