Steven believes Pars can sneak a play off place

Steven Whittaker: “I would like to think that if we still look after our own business we can still sneak in there and give ourselves a chance.”

Dunfermline led the Championship after the opening five fixtures and were in a play off place right up until the end of March. Now after draws against Ayr United and Dundee they find themselves in fifth place with only three fixtures remaining. The Pars three fixtures are against teams below them in the league while the teams above will play each other meaning maximum points cannot be achieved by them all.

Third placed Dundee have to play fourth placed Inverness Caley Thistle and second placed Raith Rovers, while Inverness and Raith have both to play Champions, Hearts.

Unfortunately for Dunfermline those fixtures are all of great significance since Tuesday night’s match against Dundee was another frustrating night which yielded only one point. Steven Whittaker agreed and gave his views on the match and the situation that the team now finds itself in:-

“I don’t think there was much in the game. Probably both teams had three or four maybe half chances with nobody able to take them. It probably wasn’t a great spectacle to watch but it is a point.

“We are outside the play offs with three to go but we believe if we can pick up close to maximum points, we will put ourselves in a good chance of creeping in.

Dunfermline’s remaining fixtures are at home to Queen of the South and Arbroath and away to Alloa Athletic. First time around this season Dunfermline took maximum points from the corresponding fixtures but when Queens visit on Saturday it is important that a first Pars win in eight matches is achieved. Steven continued:-

“The teams round about us play each other as well and that will be the deciding factor. If we can take maximum points at the weekend then both teams (Inverness and Dundee) can’t (on Tuesday). I would like to think that if we still look after our own business we can still sneak in there and give ourselves a chance.”

Steven is approaching passing 40,000 minutes of professional football and while the Pars will draw heavily on his experience, he modestly considers the final push will require all the players in the Dunfermline squad doing their part:-

“It needs everyone, not just me. I have a little ankle injury so I came on for twenty minutes at Ayr and I managed 65 on Tuesday. Games are running out so even for me it is trying to get up to speed and help the guys the best I can.

“There have been positives and negatives through the last three draws. We need to keep positive and keep taking the good aspects of these performances into these last three games.

“We have showed throughout the season that we have had poor games. Especially in the earlier parts of the season we were unbeaten, winning games and getting the breaks on the day as well. Our hard work and our play was deserving of the victory, we are just not quite finding these standards at the minute and we have three games to get back to that.”

The next three matches will have the same fine margins and Steven believes that there is a need rediscover the elements that created the early season successes:-

“A bit of everything, a bit of belief and the feel good factors from the games where we have played well. If we stick together out there, it will turn. Our home form is good, we have two games out of the three at home so let’s look at Saturday, get three points and we will see where we are at after that.”

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