The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Keep Shankland quiet the call to Pars players
Allan Johnston has urged Dunfermline to keep Lawrence Shankland quiet and make up for being bullied in their “worst performance of the season” the last time they faced Ayr United.
Johnston admits Shankland “ran amok” in the meeting of the teams back in August when the Honest Men won 4-1.
The Ayrshire side have since gone from strength to strength and will head to East End Park tomorrow proudly sitting top of the Championship table.
Shankland, who only netted once against the Pars in August, now has an incredible 28 goals in 24 games and has been linked with possible big-time moves to the likes of Swansea City and Sunderland.
Johnston is in no doubt the 23-year-old poses the biggest threat to Dunfermline tomorrow.
He said: “If you look at them, Shankland scores the majority of their goals, doesn’t he? So a big part to stopping them is stopping him.
“That’s easier said than done. He’s scored a lot of goals this season, he’s playing with a lot of confidence and he seems to look a lot fitter this season.
“So, it’s going to be hard and we’re going to have to play at the top of our game.
“Probably one of our worst performances of the season was against Ayr down there. They absolutely bullied us and we can’t let that happen.
“Shankland ran amok that game and we’ve obviously got to make sure we handle him a lot better.
“And we’ve got to do the ugly side of the game as well, defend and win your individual battles and outwork them. Hopefully if we do that our quality will shine through.”