Strikers can help fire Pars up league, says Johnston

Allan Johnston believes his striking options can help shoot Dunfermline up the Championship table.

The Pars arrested a five-game losing streak with last weekend’s 4-3 victory over bottom side St Mirren and Johnston hopes the long-awaited success can spark a winning run.

Former Rangers forward Nicky Clark netted a double against the Buddies to take his tally to three in his last two outings, whilst ex-Hibs and Falkirk marksman Farid El Alagui came off the bench to bag the winner five minutes from time.

With on-loan Hearts striker Gavin Reilly a regular starter and Michael Moffat, who scored 15 times last season, and David Hopkirk in reserve, Johnston is banking on his team’s attacking prowess lifting the League One winners higher than their current seventh place in the table.

He said: “It’s always great when you see your strikers scoring goals; I think it gives the whole team a lift.

“But it wasn’t just their goals. I thought Nicky and Gavin’s workrate was brilliant and set the tone for the rest of the team.

“There was a lot of quality play – and then Farid came on and got the winner, and made an impact as well.

“We’ve still got Michael Moffat and David Hopkirk coming back, so we have got a lot of competition there and good players.

“That’s probably the difference between the top end of the league and the bottom end – having goalscorers – and I think we’ve got them.”

Johnston, whose team face Ayr United tomorrow, added: “It was great to get the win against St Mirren. It was a long time coming, even though I don’t think we’ve been far away in a few games.

“It will definitely be competitive against Ayr, it’s always a hard game when you go there. But we’ve just got to focus on ourselves because we’ve got a lot of quality players and if we play to our potential we’re a really good team.”