Andy Barrowman Post Hibs

"The league is the most important but we want to win the cup tie so that it can breed confidence to take into our league form.

MATCH PICTURES
Pars striker Andy Barrowman is optimistic that the kind of improved performances that Dunfermline have put in this week against Hibs and last week against Inverness Caley Thistle will soon turn the season round for the foot of the table club that now trail the team above them by four points.

"The result is a real kick in the teeth but performance was great. That was an improvement on last week which was also a good team performance. Maybe there wasn't such good football played but again if we can build on that most weeks then we will win more games than we will lose."

The better play has coincided with a team shape that has committed to playing two strikers. Andy was content with that approach:-

"I prefer that. It allows the defence to get up because the two can cause more problems. You could see how many times Hibs just hacked the ball out for a throw in further up the park. With two up front it allows the defence to squeeze up and both me and Andy Kirk today did that well."

It did start well for Dunfermline when Andy Kirk got the opening goal in 14 minutes:-

"It has been a while since we got that first goal, obviously we did last week as well, but we need to do that more often. We lost a goal to a sucker punch - I think that was almost their first shot at goal in the first half. We dominated the game but came in at one each. Then in the second half we were the better side as well before they scored their third goal, if we could have held on for a couple of minutes there was only going to be one team going on to win the game."

The Manager's half time message could be summed up as same again for the second 45. Andy continued:-

"I know we came in at 1-1 but he said to keep doing what we were doing, keep the same tempo because the tempo we played at was what we want. When we have been successful this season, we have played at that tempo and we need to do that from now on."

The substitution of Liam Buchanan seemed to have paid off when he scored just 11 minutes after coming off the bench:-

"We lost the second goal from our attack; it was a great chance from Joe Cardle even though the delivery wasn't the best. We had a chance to score but then they went up the park and scored a goal less than 30 seconds later. That was a little naive on our part but we have to take the positives from a good performance."

Next up is the William Scottish Cup Fourth round replay at home to Inverness Caley Thistle who won away to Motherwell:-

"The league is the most important but we want to win the cup tie so that it can breed confidence to take into our league form. It is a big game because it is against a team that is down around about us. We want to win the replay and get ourselves into the next round of the cup."