Star striker Nisbet would love to help Pars into play-offs

Kevin Nisbet was at the centre of bigmoney bids from Hibernian and Dundee United before last month’s signing deadline – but the in-demand striker insists he was happy with Dunfermline’s decision not to sell him.

The 22-year-old finished last season as the SPFL’s top scorer and has continued that form since moving across Fife from Raith Rovers in the summer.

The on-form marksman has 22 goals in 30 appearances ahead of this afternoon’s trip to face old club Partick Thistle and has grabbed the attention of a string of admirers, including Rangers.

Hibs and United tried hard to win the race for his signature before the transfer window slammed shut but found the Pars in no mood to sell.

And Nisbet has revealed that, after a conversation with chairman Ross McArthur in early January, he knew he would be seeing out the campaign at East End Park to try to help the Fifers win promotion.

He said: “That always happens in football, on the last day of the transfer window there are bids put in. But I wasn’t really focused on that at all.

“It’s nice, the fact that clubs do want you, but, for me, it was just tunnel vision for Dunfermline, just thinking about the next game.

“The chairman did say at the start of the window that he wasn’t selling me, at all.

“I had that in my head and I just had tunnel vision, looking towards the end of the season and hopefully pushing for the play-offs.

“I spoke to the chairman about it at the start of the window so everything was cleared and I knew I was staying at Dunfermline until the summer.

“It’s not great losing your top goalscorer when you’re pushing for the playoffs.

“So, I’m happy to stay here until the summer and we’ll hopefully get that play-off push and hopefully we’ll get promoted.

“What if silly money had come in? I don’t think he was taking anything, to be honest! It was just something that he couldn’t accept.

“With the form I’m in just now, scoring goals, it would just take away the goals from the team and it was just a decision he made.

“I was happy with that decision, so it’s just a case now of focusing on trying to get to the play-offs.

“I think we’ve got a great squad here and we’ve built that.

“We didn’t have a great start to the season but I think we’ve kicked on now and hopefully we can string maybe three, four, five wins together at a crucial point in the season and try to push into the play-offs.”

Dunfermline currently sit sixth in the Championship but are just three points adrift of Arbroath in fourth.

After a horrible run of five straight defeats, Stevie Crawford’s side have recovered to post back-to-back wins against Dundee and Queen of the South and Nisbet is desperate for another three points against his former employers

He added: “It’s not an easy place to go to, even though we did go there and win 3-0 when they were in transition.

“We’ve beaten them twice this season, so we’re going there with confidence.

“The fact they’re bottom of the league, we’ve got to take advantage of that, because they’re going to be struggling to get a win.

“Hopefully we can go there and get the job done.”

Picture: SNS Kevin Nisbet: delighted to stay at Pars.