Managers Post Tranmere

07/07/18: Link to audio of both managers post match comments

Allan Johnston found it hard to take much out of the Pre Season Friendly against English League Two side Tranmere Rovers.

“I felt that we got punished in the second half but first half we actually played quite well. We created chances but at the end of the day you have to take your chances and score them. Obviously they went up the park and scored which is really frustrating.

“We have to learn because you cannot keep losing cheap goals, it puts you under pressure to win games and you end up forcing it sometimes. But it is another step closer, we are disappointed by some of the goals - we have to do better obviously and learn quickly.”

In the first half Dunfermline had corner after corner but failed to take advantage, the manager commented:-

“You can see the height that Tranmere have, they are massive. Obviosly in England they have physical presence and you tell the quality and resources they have got. They have a £3.5m training ground and that is in League Two. It is incredible the difference. We are miles away from that but it just shows you how far we have got to go.

“There was a lot of positive stuff in the first half but there is a lot to work on as well.“

Tranmere appeared to step up a gear from the restart after the interval, AJ commented:-

“We lost a poor goal, he got turned and he was allowed to come inside. He got his shot away when obviously we need to do better. We have to stop shot and it was the same with the last goal, he came inside and had a shot. You have to stop shots, that’s just basic in the last third - don’t let them come inside and have shots.

“We can not afford to make the same mistakes over and over because we are getting closer to the first competitive game.”

Several of the chances Dunfermline created fell to 17 year old Lewis McCann who only moved up from Fife Elite this season, the manager continued:-

“He has done brilliantly. He has been one of our main threats to be honest. He has got energy, he has got quality and for such a young lad he is doing really well.

“You can see that we are still a bit short, we still need to bring in players. We have players coming back from injury. Good to see Vinny (James Vincent) coming on and Joe Thomson as well. They have only trained the last days or two. Obviously we need to get them up to speed because we are maybe playing boys out of position in the middle of the park. That doesn’t help either.”

AJ confirmed that for the friendly at Arbroath on Monday it will be a different looking starting eleven:-

“There will be a couple of first team boys playing and some of the young lads as well. It is an opportunity for them to go and do well. Then we play Motherwell (Thurs 12 July at East End Park).

“Aidan Connolly’s infection is getting better thankfully, he will train tomorrow and we will just see how it reacts. Tom Beadling is probably going to be out for a number of weeks which is a big loss to us because Tom did really well last year. We are a wee bit frustrated with that one but we just have to make sure that we take our time and get him right this time.”

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