Difficult Days for Dowie

"It's not easy at all, we could be unemployed next week.

Andy Dowie described recent days as being difficult ones for Dunfermline Athletic and its players and although it was not good news he was appreciative that Jim Leishman had explained the situation to the players on Wednesday.  Now it would be a waiting game as far as the squad are concerned but Andy felt the players had not grasped that things were as bad as they are:-

"After listening to Leish it's really sunk in now that the Club are in a really bad way. As players we can't really do anything about it, we just need to concentrate on the football and training, and wait and see what happens. It's not easy at all, we could be unemployed next week. We have families, kids, it's a difficult time.

"We need the Club to survive to get our wages. We just need to wait and see, it's worrying times but hopefully they can pull through - to the very least - to the end of the season."

Andy stressed that it was nonsense for people to think that first division players, even SPL players, get paid fortunes. The non payment of wages has quickly created real problems and great uncertainty:-

"The players don't really know what position they will be in if the Club do go under. Can they join another club? Do they become free agents? And then it's trying to find a club that wants to take you until the end of the season, that's going to be difficult. Are you going to have to get a job outside football until maybe the summer and see what happens, these kind of things are running through the boys' heads."

As different groups set out their ideas for the future management of the Club, Andy admitted to keeping a fairly keen eye on the politics that have enraged some of the fans:-

"We do keep an eye on it but we don't really know what's what. We hear a story from somewhere but we don't hear the other side of it. It's hard to pass judgement on things like that. We know the owner does not want to deal with certain people that want to invest and things like that but we don't know the absolute facts. It's sometimes best the players should not talk about that side of it because we're not 100% sure."

After the Press Conference at the Club on Wednesday, Jim Leishman told the players what he had said there. He asked the players to try their best in training and on the park and hope that he can work his magic on potential investors. In the meantime the thirty year old defender claimed that the players can only take respite from Saturday's fixture against bottom of the table Airdrie United:-

"I suppose, it's 90 minutes that you don't think about it. Before the game and as soon as the game finishes, it's back straight on your mind again. It is worrying times for everybody. Everybody will be available for selection."

Andy Dowie: Goalscorer at New Broomfield in August

The Pars centre back needed no reminding that the team have lost ten of their last 14 matches but did feel that luck had also deserted the Club:-

"We on a terrible run but when you look at the Falkirk game there is no way we should have lost that. That's just the way things have gone for us and hopefully we can turn it round on Saturday."

Things looked rosy for Dunfermline earlier in the season but the off field troubles had well and truly scuppered the season for Andy who added:-

"It's no coincidence that results dipped as soon as this happened. It's had a massive effect on everybody. There is no doubt if we continued our early form right through the season we would be up there. Now that's not even important now, it's about the Club surviving and everybody getting the message."