After sustaining an injury in a last ditch tackle on Airdrieonians’ Lewis McGregor, Dunfermline captain Kyle Benedictus was subbed by Sam Fisher just 13 minutes from the end of Saturday’s defeat at the Excelsior Stadium. Kyle will quickly recover from the kick to his Achilles but the hurt of defeat will be longer lasting. Kyle expressed his side’s disappointment with both the result and their performance:-
“We are extremely disappointed. We knew what was at stake and we just never turned up. Full credit to Airdrie I thought they were miles better in the first half, second half was a bit better but we were not good enough all round as a team.
“Airdrie deserved the three points to be honest. They had a lot of options on the ball and we just didn’t get close enough. I think we started okay maybe for the first five or ten minutes but from thereon it was all Airdrie and it could have been more than the one goal down at half time. The goal from a defensive point of view was not good enough, it was a short corner and we were not quick enough to get out to the ball and the boy has made a good strike.”
Airdrie’s goal came at the very end of the first half, the Pars struck back in 61 minutes but conceded two minutes later when newly introduced, Gavin Gallagher was handily placed to net what turned out to be the winner. Kyle lamented:-
“It was a quick free kick that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. The boy has taken a shot that ended up in the back area and the sub has put it away. As a team that goal was poor especially after getting the game back to one all. For ten minutes you want to keep it tight and then we could go on to maybe try and sneak one.”
Their 2-1 win now means Airdrieonians have a nine point gap between them in fourth place and Dunfermline in fifth with just three Championship matches remaining. Kyle conceded “I know that it’s nine points but they have a superior goal difference.” The Pars chances of making a Premiership play-off place is “very unlikely” he said but warned that there is still work to be done to ensure that they are not in play-offs at the other end of the table:-
“It is just six points away from ninth now so that’s what we need to aim at (avoiding). We have three games left now to make sure that we are in this division. We have to be looking over our shoulder and make sure we train properly to be ready for a big one on Saturday. It just keeps getting tighter and tighter so we need to make sure that we don’t put pressure on ourselves and go out and get three points next week.”
Kyle takes little consolation that a fifth place finish would be good for a newly promoted team in a season in which they had encountered so many injuries:-
“All the injuries we have had and the time that it has taken to get boys back, doesn’t take away what has happened on Saturday. Most boys were back and we didn’t perform in probably our biggest game where we knew what was at stake. We didn’t turn up on Saturday so we need to make sure that we put it right next week.”
