The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Jefferies call son Pars to be more street wise
DUNFERMLINE BOSS Jim Jefferies maintains his young side should take the lessons learned from their weekend disappointment into the rest of the league campaign.
The Pars boss has always warned the youthful nature of his squad would see them make mistakes from time to time, and Jefferies reckons a failure to be streetwise when 2-0 up against Brechin on Saturday contributed to their dramatic collapse.
The visitors looked to be cruising after 54 minutes thanks to goals from on-loan Aberdeen striker Lawrence Shankland and forward Ryan Wallace, but goals from Derek Carcary and Andy Jackson had City on level terms within seven minutes before Darren Petrie’s late strike ensured the points stayed at Glebe Park.
“It was probably the most frustrated we’ve ever been with a result because half the time the Brechin players spent looking over at their bench and wondering what was happening because they were being totally outplayed in the first half,” Jefferies said.
“It’s a big lesson for the players — they’ve got the game virtually in the palm of their hand and the one thing they can’t do is let teams back into it by being sloppy.
“But when you present the other team with an opportunity and you get punished, all you do is give them a massive lift because they’ve gone from a losing position at 2-0 and they get their tails up.
“Soon enough it’s 2-2 and you’ve gone from an hour where you’ve completely dominated and within a few minutes you are level.
“It’s probably the one area that you worry about because of the fact you’ve got a lot of young boys, and I think a couple of old heads would have helped.”
The Pars face East Fife on Saturday and Jefferies feels his men can return to winning ways following back-to-back defeats.
He added: “I’ll be delighted if we play as well as we did on Saturday for most of the game. We’ve got through Stranraer and Stenhousemuir with a couple of players missing and we weren’t at our best, and Airdrie made it difficult for us.
“But Saturday was much better because we had total control, we passed the ball well and we were two goals up. If we play as well as we did and cut out the naivety, or at least learn from the naivety, we’ll be fine.
“Just give me the same performance apart from the last half hour, and it will take a very, very good performance from East Fife or an awful lot of bad luck for us to lose the game.”
With Andy Geggan suspended for Saturday, Ryan Thomson is likely to go back into what Jefferies described as his more “natural” midfield position.
“Thommo has been doing me a job up front — it’s not a natural role for him but he’ll always get you one or two goals,” he said. “But I know it’s not his favoured position and we’ve got Lawrence Shankland in and Jordan Moore and wee Faissal el Bakhtaoui has come on the scene lately and he’ll be back from suspension.
“Ryan Wallace also showed on Saturday he could play there. It means that this is an opportunity for Ryan to come back in and maybe play in midfield, although I still wouldn’t rule him out playing up front because we will wait and see who catches our eye this week.
“Whatever happens, we’ll try to bounce back on Saturday and try to give ourselves a positive result for going into the Rangers game.”
On the contract front, Courier Sport understands that Andy Geggan and Callum Morris are expected to sign new deals, although there has been no confirmation as yet from the club.
That would come hard on the heels of midfielder Josh Falkingham’s decision not to sign a new contract — a decision which may cost him the captaincy.