Quietly doing the business
Monday, 23rd Dec 2013Captain Josh Falkingham:- "We feel with the confidence that we have now that we can beat anybody.
Josh Falkingham feels that his side can celebrate maturing a lot since the troubles of administration but he would not celebrate his goal against Arbroath on Saturday:-
"A few of the boys were giving me stick but it was just out of respect for my previous club. Obviously I have a lot of good friends there but my main target on Saturday was to win the game for my current club, and that is Dunfermline,
"I was delighted with the goal, it is nice one to go in the back of the net and glad to get another three points going into the Christmas period. It is the first time that I have played against a former club; when I first came to the ground it was a bit weird but listen, you just get on with it, that's football. Things move forward, Dunfermline is my club now and I am doing everything that I can just to keep this run going.
"To be fair, I thought the boys were outstanding. That is what it has been like these last couple of weeks. As you can see on the pitch to be 2-0 up in the first half was credit to everybody against a strong wind. I have experienced it before but a few of the boys had not played in these conditions previously. I thought they handled themselves brilliantly and we deserved the 2-0. Then I was happy to get the third one.
"We are young boys but what work rate that they put in - not just one, it's one to eleven. When you see that, young boys charging people down, working hard for yourself and for everybody included, it gives you a lift.
"That is what we have at this club. The confidence is sky high and we just need to keep this run going as long as we can to hopefully secure that second place."
Josh was made captain after the Club went into administration in April 2013 and Jordan McMillan left.
"When everything went on it was a bad period, we don't talk about it any more but myself, Andy Geggan, Craig Dargo, big Callum Morris knew it was time to stand up because if you shied away from it then all those young boys behind you were going to shy away from it.
"Over the last year I feel that I have definitely matured even more. I have taken on responsibility and happy to be playing in a side that is playing that kind of football week in week out. Now there is no inconsistency, we are producing performances week after week.
"No one can say anymore that we are a young side, young kids, but we are at a tough part in the season from Christmas through January and February. The pitches and weather are not good but you could see how we can dig it out at Arbroath. We are definitely showing a maturity."
Dunfermline have gone eight games unbeaten now but Josh is mindful of how Dunfermline's form dipped at this time last year - from 8th December 2012 through until the end of March Dunfermline won only three games in 21 attempts.
"You know yourselves that if you are going to have a good solid season and finish in the league, this is the period you look back on, the time of year when you need to dig deep. I am sure that we are doing that at the minute and coming out with flying colours. We are delighted with the run that we are on and the confidence is sky high. We just want to keep that going into a massive game on Monday night."
That fixture will be against Ally McCoist's Rangers team who come to East End Park and hopefully Dunfermline will benefit from the experience of playing Rangers at Ibrox back in November. Josh feels that his team needs to step up and be brave.
"We need to show what we are doing week in week out now. We can't use any excuses that it is against Rangers - a 'big' team. We feel with the confidence that we have now that we can beat anybody.
"We will let them take all the headlines, let them be the big favourites and we are more than happy to keep going about our business quietly. I think that's what we are doing but in the right way. We are not just grinding out results, we are putting on good performances. As long as that keeps going we will look forward to this game. We have played them before, we feel that we are good enough and hopefully we will have a good night on Monday night and put on a performance that we deserve. Hopefully we can take a point or points, if we can get the win that would be fantastic."
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