Pars ready to grasp another Thistle
Monday, 11th Jul 202211/07/22: JMc: - “Everything was geared towards last Saturday, we got through that test and now we are up against another decent team.
Manager James McPake is stressing that coming early in the season, the Premier Sports Cup is a difficult competition in which to secure results. He cited St Mirren’s defeat at home to Arbroath and his side’s next opponents Buckie Thistle taking Ross County to penalties. He did not need any stronger message ahead of the Highland League club’s first visit to East End Park since 1980:-
“You never take results or performances in pre season for granted. You know when it comes to competitive games it is different. We are under no illusions how tough it is going to be on Tuesday night but we will look forward to that.
“This cup throws up these ties early in the season and it is a bit of a leveller. It is a tough competition but an important competition. Everything was geared towards last Saturday, we got through that test and now we are up against another decent team. We need to be ready for that on Tuesday night.”
James received his report from his scout at the Buckie versus Ross County match but even before that knew the Highland League runners up would come to Fife hoping to put on a good fight:-
"You see the result at Ross County at home, they lost the game on penalties. But regardless of that game we knew it was going to be a tough game anyway because they`ll come down and they`ll enjoy playing on East End Park. It`s magnificent, it`s in great condition. We`ll enjoy it as well. We need to take the second-half performance into Tuesday night or it could be us that are slipping up."
The manager felt that on Saturday East Fife were good at slowing the game down and forcing his side into too many backward passes, especially in the first 45 when he was looking for more energy to be on display. In the second half there was a marked improvement, play was moved forward faster and he was delighted to take the 2-0 victory:-
“We got Lewis McCann into the game a lot more. We doubled up on the clear cut chances that we created. We had more crosses across the box and as a team in the second half we were excellent. We were a lot more attack minded whereas we were too comfortable with possession in first half.”
Lewis McCann made the difference between the two Fife teams with goals in 67 minutes and 83rd from the penalty spot. James praised his young striker claiming that he is a pivotal part in what he is trying to do with Dunfermline:-
"He`s been great all pre season, in terms of his play and his fitness, his willingness to do the hard bits. He is a fantastic player and has great attributes to be that top of the pitch striker which he plays with the other two just off him but he`s more than just a big target man.
“He`s got a lot to his game and goals are one of those. He picked the two up on Saturday. I hope he is disappointed, we want him to be greedy and use that fire going into the next game. I`m delighted for him because he`s worked really hard.
"He`s a young academy player - Andy Tod got on, you had Paul Allan, Matty Todd in the team as well. That`s a big thing that we`re trying to do. He`s got his season off to the start he wanted, now we’ll see what he does next."
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