Gary Mason insists there will be no repeat of the Highland heartache Dunfermline suffered in 2007 when they face Inverness tonight.
Five years ago, the Pars had to win against ICT to escape relegation but instead lost out 2-1 to send them crashing down to the First Division.
A similar defeat allied to a win for relegation rivals Hibs this evening at Aberdeen would all but consign Dunfermline to the drop once again.
However, that is a scenario Mason is refusing to contemplate, especially as he believes the momentum is definitely with Dunfermline having picked up four points from their last two games, scoring seven goals in the process.
He said: ”It’s a different team from 2007. We had managed to go on a right good run but then the Inverness game was one too many for us and we were relegated.
”It was not very nice at the time but it’s a different bunch of lads now and we are not thinking about what happened five years ago. We are concentrating on what’s happening now and trying to get three points.
”We want to be in a good position going into the Hibs game next Monday. We have got ourselves in a good position, three points off them and we want to keep that pressure up. But we are not getting carried away though.
”The aim was that we wanted to be in touching distance when we play Hibs. It’s going to be hard at Inverness as Terry Butcher’s teams are always fired up and they are really tough games.
”But the last couple of matches, we’ve scored seven goals and shown real character. Hopefully we can do that again. There is a growing belief that we can stay up. We will keep our heads down and continue working hard and try to do that. We are full of confidence right now.”
Dunfermline finally ended their season-long home hoodoo on Saturday when they beat Aberdeen 3-0 to pile the pressure on Hibs, who weren’t playing until 24 hours later against St Mirren.
Mason admitted he couldn’t bear to watch that game in Paisley which was live on TV and he was just relieved at the end to discover Hibs had been defeated and the gap between the two sides was still just three points.
He said: ”It was a good win for us against Aberdeen. They were the better team but, when we got that first goal, our confidence was lifted and, when we got the second, you could see the relief.
”Getting that first win at home was such a boost and it put Hibs under pressure on the Sunday. We managed to get the result on Saturday, which is not something we’ve been able to do in previous weeks when Hibs have been playing a day later.”
Dunfermline boss Jim Jefferies admits that when he agreed to succeed Jim McIntyre at East End Park he felt like he had taken on a ”Mission Impossible” to prevent the Pars from going down.
Now, however, he believes the great escape is a distinct possibility.
He said: ”When I walked in I knew how Tom Cruise felt in Mission: Impossible although I don’t look like him maybe a few years ago! I did say to the players that, given the gap was four points at that time, that it wasn’t impossible, there was still a chance.”
Martin Hardie has been suffering from a bug that kept Austin McCann out of Saturday’s game and prevented Steven McDougall training on Monday. Both trained on Tuesday and should be available for tonight’s game.
Liam Buchanan and Jordan McMillan could also come back into contention.