Manager on Thursday

Allan Johnston is expecting Cowdenbeath to be much stiffer opponents when they return for back to back fixtures at East End Park.

Speaking to the media on Thursday the Dunfermline gaffer predicted:-

"It's going to be really difficult this weekend. I'm sure they'll be smarting from the last game and desperate to prove a point. It was a hard game the last time, even though the score probably flattered us, so we know it's going to be a physical game, that's the way they play. We've just got to make sure we do the same things we've been doing recently - move the ball quickly, have movement off the ball and take our chances."

The Pars manager is well aware that his opposite number Colin Nish will be out to get his managerial career off to a better start.

"I played with Colin down at Kilmarnock and he's a great lad. He's a good player as well and obviously he was playing last week. He's a threat when he plays because he can score goals. But we've just got to concentrate on ourselves. We've got a lot of good players, who are playing with a lot confidence just now, and we've just got to make sure we carry on doing what we've been doing."

The Cowdenbeath manager will have his players well prepared and determined to avoid of the mauling they got two weeks ago. Allan continued:-

"I'm sure they'll be desperate to make amends as well. Obviously, they're fans would have been disappointed. It's a derby and the last couple of results haven't gone their way, so I'm sure they'll be working even harder to try and get a result. That's what we've got to be cautious of as well, we've got to make sure we don't get complacent and work even harder to make sure we keep achieving what we've been achieving."

The match will start all square and anything that Dunfermline can take from the match will need to be earned. AJ warned about being over confident.:-

"We can't afford to turn up and play at 75 per cent. We've got to be 100 per cent at it in every game. We can't allow any slackness to come in. That's our job, as a backroom staff, to make sure that doesn't happen every day in training and in games. Hopefully they can take the way they've been training into games."

There is little doubt after 41-, 5-1 and 6-1 victories that Dunfermline has got good player and that was demonstrated last week with some of the goals they scored. The manager felt that they were fantastic:-

"For me, it's great to see the boys coming off the bench - Josh Falkingham coming on and getting a great goal and Ryan Wallace getting another one having come off the bench and putting in a really good performance. We'll need everybody over the next few weeks, but it's great to have these guys pushing for a place in the starting XI.

"Everybody is fit. Callum Fordyce got a knock at the weekend, came off at half time but he trained today and he is absolutely fine. It was the just the way he landed, a bit awkward and we took him off more as a precaution.

"We need everybody fully fit and ready to play. We've got a lot of games coming up over a short period of time and with such a small squad we will be stretched to the limit. We need to make sure everybody's ready to play and fully fit, and make sure there's no excuses."

The size of squad is still to be increased and Allan revealed his current progress:-

"We've looked at a couple of players, to be fair. We're hopefully going to bring in another two. We've got four guys in just now on trial and they've all done well. We'll see where that takes us.

"Mickael Antoine-Curier is one of the guys we've got in. He's a bit different to every other striker we've got at the moment. He's got a big presence. He's missed a wee bit of training as well, though, so we'll see how it goes with that one. We'll have more of a look at him over the next week or so."