Ryan and team mates flying
Monday, 3rd Aug 2015"We put on a great performance, scored five goals and it could have been a few more."
Ryan Wallace was pleased to get back on the park for the second week running and delighted to have scored on both outings. He spoke about it to the media post match on Saturday:-
"It is good to get back playing again, if you look at it over a year ago I wasn't even fit at this point. It is good to be involved a scoring goals again."
Against Cowdenbeath his goal came from the penalty spot but it was his control of a through ball that created the run that caused the penalty to be conceded.
"I would happily have tapped it in the net and the keeper never got sent off. Unfortunately he clipped my foot and I was going down 100% then. I don't think anybody else was ever going to get the ball then, I wasn't giving that ball up!"
There was two minutes between the penalty being given and Ryan scoring. Cowdenbeath keeper Michael Andrews was red carded and keeper Jamie Sneddon came off the bench to take over with Craig Johnston being sacrificed to make way for another stopper. Ryan described how he kept focussed:-
"I walked away from the ball, I don't like standing there looking at the goal. When I get a penalty I generally walk away and don't stand there until the referee is ready to go."
The striker who was 25 years old on Thursday sunk the spot kick in the bottom left giving Sneddon little chance but the keeper was subsequently to deny Ryan a second pulling off a save that saw the ball tantalisingly roll along the goal line.
"Unfortunately it spun the wrong way but it is just good to get another win. I don't really want to talk about Cowdenbeath, the win is all about Dunfermline. We put on a great performance, scored five goals and it could have been a few more. We won 5-1 and are in the next round of the cup."
Two goals in two weeks means that the striker has already surpassed his 2014-15 tally. Ryan's only strike last season was in the League cup tie against Annan Athletic exactly a year ago. He started only one match last season - against Peterhead on 3rd January - and being out for so long, returning and then suffering setbacks was very frustrating for Ryan who claimed that it was great to be back:-
"I have done every session of pre season. Now it is about getting game time and trying to get back in that squad. That is going to prove to be very difficult is they keep performing the way they keep performing.
"I am fully fit now but at the end of the day it is about match fitness. You can do as much running in pre season as you like but it comes down to playing games, that is where you get your fitness."
Double hernia surgery, a stress fracture of his lower back and then one his hip had made it hard for Ryan's problems to be diagnosed and treated.
"There loads of different symptoms so they were diagnosing one but not getting to the bottom of the other. Nine weeks down the line it was flaring up again so it was a tough time. Hopefully I am over that bridge now and moving on."
A win over Cowdenbeath was a great tonic for both players and fans. Certainly everyone hopes that it was just a taste of things to come this season, Ryan continued:-
"The fans loved it, 5-1 against your local rivals is a wonderful score and the performance matched it. There have been a few boys come in. Eighteen boys went out in the summer, there was a core still here but the manager has brought in his own signings and the boys are flying.
"Boys are playing to keep their jerseys, everybody is playing well so there is competition for places. There is goal scoring from everywhere. That was the problem last season - we didn't score enough goals. We went side to side last season whereas we are a lot more direct this season. There are goals coming from strikers and from midfielders. Shaun Byrne scored a double which is fantastic for him so long may that continue."
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