Manager ahead of St Johnstone

23/02/12: JM- "Saturday is a game that we have to go into with confidence, we have been there and won there this season before ..

Jim McIntyre is pleased by the performance of his players in recent games and hopes to take that into Saturday's game against St Johnstone:-

"Celtic dominated possession and we set up the way we did because we knew they would. It was a matter of being tight, try to limit Celtic and try and hit them on the counterattack. For large parts we did it very well.

"Celtic are playing such free flowing stuff just now and are so full of confidence. To go with an open set up on Wednesday night would have been damaging for us. Especially with us having a few players out, we decided to pack the midfield and make it difficult for them.

"We were a little disappointed when we got our half chances; we should have done better with them. There were occasions when it was on."

It was important not to return from Parkhead with a heavy loss that could have dented confidence. Macca continued:-

"At this time in the season that is the last thing you want. We can thank our keeper because the big man stood up to be counted. He made some great saves and did really well. He had a lot of routine saves as well but there were two that stick in my mind as top drawer saves. He looked assured.

"Saturday is a game that we have to go into with confidence, we have been there and won there this season before. St Johnstone are obviously doing very well. Steve Lomas has come in a carried on from where Derek McInnes had left off. We know that it will be a tough game; I have watched them a couple of times in the cup against Hearts. They were possibly the better team and should have gone through - that's just the way football is sometimes."

While efforts are 100% towards achieving a result, there is only one thing on everybody at Dunfermline's mind when the final whistle goes - how did Hibs do? Macca conceded that it would be only two teams involved in the dogfight against relegation unless the bottom two could start collecting points:-

"Right now it is between us and Hibs. The only way that'll change is if us and Hibs put a few results together to draw ourselves closer to the teams above us. When it gets to this stage in the season and there are not a lot of games left, the first result that you are looking for is the other team in the battle.

"The bottom line is that we want them beaten, as they do with us. That is not being out of order saying that, it will be the exact same thoughts for them but we cannot affect what happens over there, we have to channel all our energies into thinking what we can do and what we can produce rather than anything about Hibs."

Injuries Update

Kevin Rutkiewicz left Celtic Park with a badly swollen ankle and went for a scan on that on Thursday.

"It doesn't look good but I can't comment on it too much until we get the results of the scan."

Fortunately Austin McCann was able to step back into the team after being out through injury since mid November. Jim McIntyre stressed that for the final part of the season that it was important to have as many players as possible back:-

"Ozzie has been great for me in his spell here. He played a great part as he led us to the league title last season and he is a player that we can trust. It was good in a way that he managed to get 45 minutes, bad that it was at the expense of somebody picking up an injury. Kevin Rutkiewicz has been superb since he came back into the side and if we do lose him for any length of time it will be a blow to us."

As a precaution striker Andy Kirk was omitted for the Celtic game after he had felt his hamstring tight following last Saturday's game:-

"Hopefully Kirkie has a good chance for Saturday, Jordan MacMillan might have a 50/50 chance, Mark Kerr is making progress - slowly and not in time for Saturday, hopefully the following game. Barrowman is making very good progress and hopefully he will start joining in towards the tail end of next week."

Keeper Iain Turner has to rest for six weeks, Paul Gallacher is out for the season, Nick Phinn has had a set back and Steven Bell is still working hard to get back to fitness.