Pars boss seeks reaction in Fife derby crunch
Dunfermline manager Stevie Crawford insists he’s not worried about his team’s away form after dropping more points on the road.
The Pars have only recorded one away league victory this season, against Alloa in October, but Crawford believes there were positives to take from their 1- 0 defeat against Queen of the South at Palmerston.
He said: “I’m not concerned with our away form. We’ve drawn a number of games away from home. It’s a difficult league, anybody can beat anybody in this league.
“I’d be more concerned if we didn’t play in the manner we did in the first half but it’s a big opportunity missed. We were done with a sucker punch with Queens’ goal.
“You don’t win games with possession stats and we didn’t work the goalkeeper enough. That’s the disappointing thing from it.
“When Queens scored it changed the game, we started going searching for an equaliser and changed a few things but it wasn’t to be.
“We have to put it down as a bad day at the office. It was an opportunity to put ourselves in a really good position in the league.”
Now Crawford has called on his side for a reaction for their televised derby tussle with Raith Rovers on Friday night.
He added: “The result should hurt and if we’re wanting to challenge for the play- off spots, we need a reaction against Raith. We need to use the hurt from today to get a positive result and maintain our play-off spot.”
Me a n w h i l e , Q u e e n s are n ow sitting pretty in fourth spot in the Championship but they take on Dick Campbell’s in- form Arbroath side next week at Gayfield.
A delighted Queens gaffer Allan Johnston said: “Arbroath are on fire at the moment, it’s unbelievable the number of results they are getting. We are the league’s two in- form teams so it should be a great occasion.
“It’s going to be a really difficult game up there. It always is the case when you play them but hopefully we can go there and put in a positive performance and keep the run going.”