Steven fit to fight

"This time we want to give a better account of ourselves and try and get a result.

Once upon a time Steven McDougall dreamt of progressing through the Rangers youth system.  He joined at the age of 9, but eight years later Steven left the Gers to join Airdrie United and in his opinion he never looked back. While hoping to being able to be part of a Pars side to record a result over his old club, he paused to praise the good upbringing which he shares with Jim McIntyre's latest two signings:-

"Being at Murray Park you get the best of training and the best coaches. It pushes you on and so when you go somewhere else the grounding at the big club shows.

"I played with Jordan (McMillan) when I was at Rangers, he was a couple of years younger but he was a good player and he is a really good signing. Kyle, I never knew but since he arrived here he has been really good and had a good debut on Tuesday night. He will be missing on Saturday but hopefully somebody else can come in to take their chance."

The winning mentality that the pair bring in is something that Steven hopes can rub off on the rest of their new team mates. The 25 year old striker now hopes that his injury problems are behind him and he can be part of the battle that Dunfermline face between now and the end of the season to fight back relegation. His return to the Pars team on Tuesday night after an absence of three months is a step in the right direction..

It was an oversue injury aggravated by the astroturf and hard pitches. He had an injection in his pubic bone that has most squirming in sympathy but Steven is really pleased that the jag has put him back into contention. Last season he played in 42 of the Pars 44 games but this season has only started two and come off the bench eight times.

"I started against St Mirren at the start of the season and was hoping to stay in the team but it never worked out that way. I got injured and found it hard to get back in. Hopefully now I can push on and get back involved."

Steven feels that he didn't have a good pre season and was not playing well enough to hold down a starting place.

"You can't expect to play if you are not doing it. That's just what happens in football and you have to work hard to try and get back in."

Andy Barrowman's absence has created the opportunity and Steven is hoping to fill the void especially since his one and only appearance against Rangers was a painful 7-2 League Cup defeat at Ibrox in September 2010:-

"Rangers are favourites for virtually every game they go into especially when coming to Dunfermline but you never know, if we are on top of our game and they can have an off day then we could hopefully get a result. I do not see why not.

"Every team in the league can match each other at times, we will approach it like every other game and try to go a result. We will go into the game in the same way as we do every game.

"Rangers have had a bad couple of weeks and if we come out of the tracks flying we could find ourselves struggling early on. We cannot underestimate them. The home game where they beat us 4-0 was a wee bit of a doing but we moved on from that game, went to Ibrox and did well but this time we want to give a better account of ourselves and try and get a result."