Manager on Thursday

25/07/19: SC - “We have that burning desire to make sure that we progress to the next round”

Stevie Crawford is happy that qualification for the knock out stages of the Betfred Cup is in his team’s hands. He said that he knows what is ahead of them but started off by looking back at last Saturday’s result:-

“Albeit we are disappointed as I mentioned after the Edinburgh City game, we probably didn’t create enough chances in the first half. All credit to Edinburgh City they sat off us and made it difficult but you move on from it.”

Along with Jason (Dair), Stevie watched the Edinburgh City v East Kilbride match on Tuesday night and after it and seeing the way the result went with St Mirren and Albion Rovers as well, they know that to progress in the tournament, a victory takes Dunfermline through.

“If you had asked us that at the start of the tournament, then I`m sure that we would have taken it. One of the things we struggled with on Saturday was the AstroTurf. It was a hot, hot day and it is a different way of playing football.

”Even watching in Edinburgh, and I know East Kilbride play on AstroTurf as well, you could see the boys are a little bit more comfortable playing on it week by week - the way they pass and the movement on the pitch.

”I am not wanting to make that an excuse why we lost the game. We did not compete well enough in that first half but we move on from it and hopefully there is a wee bit of disappointment hanging in the boys mindsets but not in a way that affects our positive results in the earlier stages of the group.”

East Kilbride have given themselves a chance in what is the group decider on Saturday and if someone had suggested to East Kilbride that they could come to East End with the chance of qualifying with a victory here, they would probably have snapped your hand off.

”It will be a big match for them and one that we will give all due respect to, but to play the last home game at East End knowing that a victory takes us through is something that we will look forward to as well.”

Stevie and Jason watched East Kilbride play Albion Rovers as well as their most recent match at Edinburgh City. Stevie commented:-

”They have actually changed formation in every game believe it or not. The game that we never got to see they played a slightly different formation so they are keeping us on our toes. Are they coming here to win the game or are they coming here to frustrate us? If we focus too much on that then I think it takes away from what we are trying to add to the game.

”The one thing we do know and that we have been working on this week is our mindset is very much on winning the tie.”

Stevie rates it important to watch opponents:-

”I think in modern day football you have to be wary of what the opposition are going to do. It is about getting the balance right and not focus too much on the opposition because it takes away from your own game. I don`t think that was the case last week against Edinburgh City, we were playing on a different surface and that had an impact on us.

”Now we are back on the grass then we have to very much focus on what we think our squad is good at and what will give us the best opportunity to win the game.

”Edinburgh City decided to play a 4-5-1 and sit in which never really allowed us to get width higher up the pitch. Could we have used it better, got on the ball and tried to play through them or down the sides more?

”I thought we did in the second half - Josh Coley came to life and we got more chances down the right hand side with Ryan Dow and Kevin Nisbet’s movement but we never scored goals. So you are always open to be judged on that at the end of the game. First half we didn`t create enough chances whether that was down to tactics or just desire, movement and selfishness to get into goalscoring positions.

“We have that burning desire to make sure that we progress to the next round” claimed Stevie but the Betfred Cup has had its share of upsets but he continued:-

”Upsets do happen and hopefully our upset was against Edinburgh City on Saturday. I think other results stick out with Montrose beating St Johnstone, Dundee United losing to East Fife on Tuesday night. In the early stages of the season when you are still trying to find a balance to your squad, some teams do have to try and get players up to fitness with us starting the season as early as we do.”

Despite the tough schedule the players appear to have come through the three matches unscathed:-

”We had three games in the space of six days, not three games within the space of the seven. Believe it or not, that extra day can make a difference as well. It was the Sunday to the Saturday but we have now had a full week to get ourselves ready for the game.

”The boys rested up over the weekend, they have trained properly over the week but the result will still be hurting them still but in the right way. We have managed to get a good working week under our belt meaning the right recovery.”

The cancellation of the reserves match at Dundonald on Wednesday night was a blow to the come back of Danny Devine:-

”It is a strange one to get called off but there was a downpour during the night, thunder and lightning. We have seen the pictures of Dundonald’s waterlogged pitch. It will have an impact because Danny was one of the senior ones who was looking to get an hour.

”It is a little bit of a set back but by all accounts he was on the phone to Kevin and will do an extra session in the gym. Danny is desperate to get back involved, challenging for a place and it is great to hear that he has that attitude and mindset.

”Euan Murray has trained with us since the tail end of last week. With a calf injury we felt that playing on the AstroTurf might be a little too soon for him. In hindsight probably the right decision not to push him because it could have flared up. He has trained properly this week and he will very much come into contention for a starting place this week.”

”Joe Thomson I think is talking about running on the 4G surface in the next couple of weeks. He is still a long way from full recovery but positive steps in that regard. He is in good hands in Kevin (Bain) and John (Porteous) and progressing well.

”Unfortunately no other signings. We are not adding that one to the squad that we are looking for but we are continually on the look out and doing our homework.”

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