Manager on Thursday
Thursday, 15th Oct 201515/10/15: AJ - "We've been over the mistakes and where we went wrong ...
The Dunfermline manager and players are hoping to get back on track at Stranraer this Saturday after a bad day in the Petrofac Training Cup on the international weekend just past. Allan Johnston reflected on the match against St Mirren:-
"We've all been there as players when you have bad performances, but for so many of us to have an off day is really unusual. There has to be a reaction from the players. They've worked really hard this week, they've been really bright and hopefully we'll get a result.
"We've been over the mistakes and where we went wrong so that we improve, because some of the goals we lost were really basic. We can't afford to lose goals that easily on that cheaply. So, hopefully now we can get back going in the right direction and back to winning games again."
Updating on his injured players AJ explained that Faissal El Bakhtaoui is improving and although he did not train on Thursday there are hopes that he will be sufficiently over his hamstring injury to take part on Friday.
"He's a naturally fit lad and the good thing is it's nothing serious, that's a major plus. I think he's just been a bit tight, it's been niggling a wee bit. So, hopefully with a couple of days' rest it's starting to feel a bit better already."
Lewis Martin was in a car crash on his way to training a week past Monday but is back in training now. The manager described it all as a bit of a nightmare for the defender who sustained injuries to his back and knees with the impact from the accident:-
"He was really lucky, because it was a bad one. The car overturned and I think the car ended up a write-off. So, he was really fortunate to come out of that with nothing more serious. It was him and his girlfriend and the two of them are fine, that's the main thing. It's just taken him a week or two to get back to normal again."
The other player missing from the squad in Paisley was Mickael Antoine-Curier but he is reported to be back in training and adding to the competition for places. Allan added:-
"We've got a strong squad and everybody's fighting for places; we're starting to get back to more or less everybody being fully fit."
Given the travel, Stranraer is possibly every club in League One's least favourite away trip and always is accompanied by that well worn phrase, "It's a difficult place to go".
"You can see in their last couple of results that they've done really well. We know how hard it's going to be but in the majority of the games this season we've played really well. Sometimes having a result like last week against St Mirren is a bit of a wake-up call. Training this week has been really, really bright and we're back to the energy levels we've shown since the start of the season."
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