The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Crawford eager to see Pars’ new faces back in action
Stevie Crawford admits he has been impressed with the way Celtic youngster Jonathan Afolabi has settled in at Dunfermline since signing on loan last month.
But the Pars boss has confessed his side’s enforced layoff has been far from ideal for all his new faces as they have sought to make an instant impact.
Afolabi joined the Fifers ahead of last month’s transfer deadline and the 20-year-old made his debut in the 3-2 win over Queen of the South just a few days later.
But the former Southampton striker has, like the rest of the East End Park squad, been left kicking his heels since because of two free weekends for the team.
Crawford recruited Ethan Ross from Aberdeen, QPR’S Dylan Duncan, Kilmarnock winger Dom Thomas and keeper Owain Fon Williams from Hamilton Accies last month and is eager to see them in action as he prepares for Saturday’s trip to face Partick Thistle.
He said: “It’s like anything, when you get players in on loan they’ve probably not been getting the game-time they were hoping for at their clubs.
“Jonathan did great down at Queen of the South and has the break helped him? Probably not.
“But he’s worked hard, as have the other new boys who have joined in the January transfer window.
“We did our homework on the types of boys we were bringing in and the five of them are good lads.
“They’ve settled in well and they’re here to complement what we already had.”
The Pars arrested a worrying sequence of five successive defeats with a home win against Dundee last month. And they backed that up with the victory against Queen of the South.
It has left the Pars back in sixth in the Championship but within five points of Inverness in second and only three points shy of fourth-placed Arbroath, with a game in hand.