In his post-match interview, Lewis McCann, expressed his amazement at the unusual turn of events during Saturday’s game. With 118 senior football matches under his belt, the striker admitted that he had never been part of a match where one side hit the woodwork eight times. Despite Inverness Caley Thistle’s relief that only one of Dunfermline’s dozen attempts found the net, Lewis described the experience as ‘ridiculous,’ particularly after his side’s numerous near things in the first half.
“I just thought it was one of those days in front of goal. We were dominant first half and they came back into it in the second half and it was a bit ironic that the equalising goal goes in off the post as well.”
Lewis first hit the goalposts with a 17th minute strike that rattled off the right upright and out of the left one. Two minutes later he witnessed Kane Ritchie-Hosler hit that right goalpost and again the ball was cleared after hitting the left goalpost. A weak back pass in 33 minutes gifted Lewis another opportunity but when he rifled his shot at goal, it was the right goalpost that kept him out and the crossbar that prevented Owen Moffat’s follow up. In the second half Ewan Otoo’s piledriver shot from 30 yards came back off the post and even when Lewis did net, the ball went in off the post!
Lewis felt it was a hard earned draw but he praised his team mates:- “We have a lot of big characters in that changing room. Nobody wants to lose games. To come away from that game with just one point hurts a little bit because we believe that we can win every game that we play.”
After Inverness Caley Thistle had opened the scoring two minutes before half time through former Pars defender, Danny Devine it took until 87th minute for Dunfermline to find a reply. Lewis was relieved that this time the woodwork did not defeat him:- “Joe (Chalmers) just chipped it over the defender who mis-timed his header, I chested it down and flung a foot at it. I heard it hit the post and thought it had stopped it again.”
As time ran out Lewis had feared it wasn’t to be Dunfermline’s day but he was mindful of James McPake’s advice:-
“The gaffer always says ‘mistakes happen’, so he just says forget about it. No matter what’s going on or what’s happening. If your touch isn’t right that day, he just says keep going, it doesn’t matter, because it can just click at any point.”
To earn a draw against a team on a strong unbeaten run gives the 22 year old some encouragement:-
“I would say, especially recently, we’ve put in a few good performances that have probably warranted a few more points but that’s football. Anything can happen. We conceded a bit of a soft goal but again, these things happen.
“We’re obviously disappointed to take away just a draw but it’s one of those things you just have to take and move on to next Friday.”
Saturday’s equaliser was Lewis’ 20th senior goal, his seventh of this season after a run of five games without scoring. He admitted:-
“I’ve set myself a challenge and I’m a very competitive person so I’ll be looking to meet that challenge. The gaffer’s challenged me to score a certain amount of goals this season. I’m not going to say how much it is because if I don’t get it he’ll be saying ‘he’s rubbish’!
This Friday night’s match is the Scottish Cup tie against Raith Rovers and this will be the fourth time this season that the two Fife rivals have met. Lewis closed:-
“We look forward to these games. A few results against them have not gone our way this season but we need to forget that and move on to the next game. We are looking forward to it and it should be a good one for the fans as well. Hopefully we can turn up.”
