Loan star looking for lift
Saturday, 20th Dec 2014"It's up to us now to start picking up results and hopefully we can do that on Saturday."
Ryan Scully is on his second loan spell with Dunfermline and he had held his regular starting slot while the club and team went through all sorts of changes. The latest - the change of management - he claims had come as a bit of a shock and rather strange in that not for the first time he finds a team mate take charge.
"We just found out on the Tuesday when we came back in, but we've got everything out of our system now. Potts - the gaffer - came to talk to us on Wednesday, just to tell us what he wants from us between now and the end of the season. We're a bunch of professionals, we just need to get on with it and start producing on the pitch now."
Jim Jefferies had always been expected to retire at the end of the season and he was committed to revising his position at Christmas. Ryan said it was no surprise
"Obviously the last few results haven't been great but we still didn't really expect him to walk away. That was his decision and now we just need to get on with it. You can't really sit and dwell on it. We're professionals at the end of the day and we've not being doing the job to our best in the last few weeks. It's up to us now to start picking up results and hopefully we can do that on Saturday."
Ryan is contracted to Partick Thistle until 2016 and while there he encountered the exact same situation when Alan Archibald moved into management:-
"I had to start calling him gaffer. John Potter is the gaffer now, he's explained that, and he's said that's what we have to call him now. Obviously it will take a wee bit of time to get used to it but he's the gaffer now, we have to listen to him and hopefully get results. We got used to it quite quickly at Thistle - because you got fined if you didn't call him gaffer. Within a couple of weeks you have got used to it and it becomes second nature.
"He's always been involved. It was usually him and Neil that took training, so nothing really has changed too much that way. But it's just getting used to it, he's the gaffer now and it's his decisions on a Saturday. He's really good. We had a good talk with him on Wednesday when he just explained what he expects from us now and stressed that he's the gaffer and he'll be making the decisions."
Goalkeeping coach at Dunfermline however is Brian Potter and that means that Ryan Scully has two brothers to impress:-
"It's a wee bit of a tricky one that the new gaffer's brother is my goalkeeping coach. I'll keep quiet with him."
Another goalie coach watching the Pars keeper closely is former Pars keeper, Paul Gallacher. Gall has taken the opportunity to get back into the Partick side and has played the last five games conceding only three times. Gall gave the perspective of the Firhill club:-
"From our point of view we had to get him out on-loan to get games and he's done fantastically well at Dunfermline. It's obviously a club I know well, so I knew he'd fit in well there. In his second season he seems to have pushed on, I think he won some player of the year award so it's worked.
"We'd have liked him to push up to the Championship but obviously Dunfermline didn't get promotion which was a bitter blow to them. For someone his age to be playing week-in-week-out is absolutely fantastic."
With nine clean sheets in the first 14 league matches Ryan was having a good season until conceding ten goals in the last four games. He continued:-
"That was probably the best start of the season I've ever had. I had a lot of clean sheets, which was really good. But the last few weeks hasn't been good enough, we've been losing too many goals.
"It's a case of being a bit too gung-ho and not really keeping our shape but the defence has been a bit makeshift at times. We've not been good enough as a whole collective, as a team, but Saturday is the perfect time."
John Potter's first fixture will be against Stranraer, the third meeting between the teams in as many weeks. There will be familiarity but Ryan reckons that the new manager will maybe give Dunfermline a bit of freshness.
"We obviously had a bad result against Stranraer last Tuesday, so this will be a good chance to get a bit of revenge. Obviously it hurt, them putting us out the cup, because I think we were favourites for it.
"After the last few results we could be going in to Saturday with a wee bit of a downer but the new manager is here now and has maybe given us a wee bit of a lift. We want to get back to winning ways and get the three points and start getting the performances back up to the level they should be."
As for the level achievable by Ryan Scully, Paul Gallacher summed up the 22 year old's potential:-
"His shot-stopping in one-on-one situations is very good, some of the blocks he makes are incredible. And usually in training if he's not got one off the face you'd be very surprised because he sticks his head anywhere.
"He makes great saves. I've watched him a few times and he's become more confident as well. For someone his age playing week-in-week-out is only going to help him.
"If he can maybe get into the Championship and play a number of games it'll enhance his career. Obviously he's getting loads of games and he's been doing great but you want to test yourself at the higher level.
"I'm not sure if he's quite ready to jump into Premiership football but as I say he's progressing really well and he's definitely one to watch for the future."
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