Johnston in call to keep promotion hopes alive

Dunfermline: Manager says his side must pull out all the stops

Allan Johnston has urged Dunfermline to stick together if they want to stop their promotion dreams falling apart.

The Pars have not won in their last six Championship games and Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at league leaders St Mirren saw them drop to sixth in the table.

The Fifers are just six points adrift of Morton in third, with a game in hand, but Johnston knows they need to spark a turn around in fortunes fast if they are to get back in the hunt for a play-off place.

Tonight’s home clash with Inverness Caley Thistle is followed by the visit of Morton on Saturday, so this could be a pivotal week for the East End Park men and Johnston has called for a big effort from everyone at the club.

“As we’ve been saying for a while now, we need that win to get us started on a run and we’ve got to show a reaction after getting beaten at the weekend.

“We need to improve. We’ve not been good enough in the last few games and we can’t afford to slip down the table any further,” he said.

“We need to keep in touch with the teams above us and it’s going to take a real team effort, everybody playing at their best, to get that win.

“Everybody realises how important the remaining games are for everyone at the club.

“We know where we want to be and it’s still achievable, but we are making it more difficult for ourselves by not getting the wins we need.”

Falkirk’s win over Morton put them within two points of Dunfermline, while Inverness, who have two games in hand on the Pars and are five points behind, will feel they have a chance of forcing their way into the play-off reckoning.

Johnston, who will be without Jason Talbot through suspension after his red card at the weekend, knows that makes tonight’s game even more important.

He added: “It’s incredible how tight the league is and it’s about who can put a run together.

“But that’s extremely hard because everybody is capable of taking points off each other and there are so many teams looking to get a play-off place.

“Inverness will feel they’re still in with a chance and they’re a good team, with a lot of good players, players who have played in the Premiership.

“So, we’ll have to work incredibly hard and put in a real team effort if we want to get the win we need.”

Picture: SNS. St Mirren’s Liam Smith scores his side’s second goal against Dunfermline.