James McPake describes Chris Kane as a proper striker and recognises him as being an integral part of his parent club, St Johnstone’s fantastic achievement – the League Cup and Scottish Cup double in 2021. Chris’ extensive experience was one of the key factors that attracted the Dunfermline manager to bringing him to KDM Group East End Park in February and on Saturday, in his 300th appearance in senior football the striker showed just that. He brought his side back from a goal down to win a penalty kick and then showed composure as the wind made it hard to settle the ball on the penalty spot before confidently converting the 78th minute spot kick. Chris was in no doubt that the penalty award by referee Calum Scott for Aaron Muirhead’s challenge was the correct decision:-
“A lot of people might give me stick for it but he catches me right down my Achilles. My boot nearly came off as well, it’s a penalty. They will think it is soft but at the end of the day it is. I’m just thankful that I put it away.”
At St Johnstone and even at clubs where Chris has been on loan such as Dumbarton and Queen of the South other players have been designated penalty takers so Saturday’s was just his third conversion from the spot in his 60 goals career total. The 29 year old would hit the post two minutes from full time and there was a couple of other chances that could have won the Pars the three points. In the end Chris was disappointed that a winner could not be found.
“Obviously we wanted to win it. It was a big game for us and we wanted to make it four (wins) out of four. They go one nil up and then make it hard for us but second half I thought we were excellent. We created loads of chances and hit the post a couple of times. On another day we could have scored three or four. We are disappointed that we never won but at the end of the day it could be a big point come the end of the season.
“We knew that they were going to be good on the counter and they were, so we had to defend well and do our part in the final third. Unfortunately we never got a goal, we had a bit of bad luck hitting the post twice. I thought my shot was going in, it was a good strike to be fair – I’ve been watching Brian Graham a few times! I will say that it was the wind that took it wide and it hits the post. I don’t know how Matty’s shot never went in either. On another day hopefully they do go in and get us the win. We defended well and a bit unlucky that we never got the goal at the end.”
Saturday was not just a fight against Partick Thistle but the first signs of Storm Kathleen had to be overcome as well. Chris agreed that the conditions affected the performance of both teams:-
“It was tough, the wind seemed to pick up in the second half. It wasn’t too bad before the game but it did pick up, it was tough but we knew both teams had to play with it. I thought we did it well, we still got the ball down and played good football. We are just disappointed that we never got the win.”
Nevertheless Dunfermline are now undefeated in their last four games, Chris has now scored three goals in his six starting appearances for Dunfermline and he praised the attitude and spirit in the dressing room:-
“It has been good since the day I have come in. Even before that I knew they were going through a bad spell but as soon as I came in the boys were up. It wasn’t like a down changing room, the more results that we get the more upbeat we will be. Hopefully we can push on and get more.”
