Crawford seeking the right response

Stevie Crawford has urged Dunfermline to use Saturday’s ‘farcical’ defeat to Arbroath as extra motivation in their bid for promotion this season.

The Pars boss is adamant his side’s 2-0 loss should have been abandoned due to the storm that battered Gayfield.

Crawford feared his players could get injured in the conditions and claimed the match simply ‘wasn’t football’.

However, insisting his views were not ‘sour grapes’ following a loss that leaves them in third place, 12 points adrift of league leaders Hearts, the Fifers boss is seeking the right response from his squad.

He said: “We have got to use that as motivation. I will not use excuses in terms of that.

“We have just got to take it and dust ourselves down.

“We have had two really good performances against Hearts last week and against Raith Rovers. We took three points from six to put ourselves in a good position.

“It is not getting too despondent, it is responding in the right manner and using that as motivation – you don’t get everything your own way in life, so ‘come on, then let’s kick on from here’.”

The Pars meanwhile have opened up East End Park as a centre for Covid-19 vaccinations.

The Fife side were keen to be involved in the local community’s fight against the deadly pandemic and have offered their facilities for use by the NHS free of charge in the roll-out of the immunisation programme.

The first patients arrived at the ground yesterday to receive their vaccines, with thousands more expected through the doors in the coming days.

The concourse of the Norrie McCathie stand has been transformed into a centre that will allow NHS Fife to administer hundreds of doses per day to locals.

Back in November, SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster offered stadiums up and down the country for use in the vaccine effort, insisting clubs were ‘ready, willing and able’ to help out.

Aberdeen and Rangers volunteered the use of Pittodrie and Ibrox, respectively, but Dunfermline are the only Scottish football club whose ground is acting as vaccine hub.

● Raith Rovers have signed Clyde central defender Tom Lang on a pre-contract deal.

The 23-year-old will go full-time at Stark’s Park from the summer after two and a half seasons with the Bully Wee.

The Rovers management team of John McGlynn and Paul Smith welcomed the news, saying: “Although we are very much concentrating on the job in hand this season we are also looking to next season.

“On the back of Ross Matthews agreeing a threeyear deal, we follow that up with the pre-contract agreement with Tom Lang.

“Tom is a player we have had our eye on for the last couple of years, ever since we both returned to the club. We feel he is ready to establish himself in our team.”