James McPake praises Dunfermline mentality switch after suffering first League 1 defeat

By Craig Cairns

October 22 2022, 6:05pm

McPake wants to avoid a huge turnover of players. Image: SNS.

After 12 league matches Dunfermline Athletic finally lost.

Stewart Petrie’s Montrose were the side to inflict the defeat through a second-half double from substitute Matthew Wright.

James McPake was full of praise for his players after the 2-0 defeat at Links Park Stadium – even for Aaron Comrie whose error led to the second goal.

“First and foremost, well done to Montrose,” said the Pars boss.

“They had a different gameplan to what they came to East End Park with.

Opening goal the difference

“Today they went a bit more direct and got some joy from it. Credit to Stewart Petrie.

“The difference today was probably that they took that one chance.

“I discount the second goal because we’re chasing the game and I know that if it’s 0-0 Aaron Comrie boots it right over that stand.

“He’s trying to get us back into the game.

“I didn’t think there was that much in the game, it was a bit scrappy at times.

“When we did get the ball down and play, played through the middle third, we looked pretty good and we created a couple of chances.”

After a season to forget last time Dunfermline have totally turned it around for this campaign.

Just one defeat saw them exit the Premier Sports Cup group stage and their first 11 League 1 matches saw them draw four and win seven – the same amount of wins as the whole of last season.

James McPake. — McPake praised the shift in mentality from his players.

It has taken until game 12 for them to lose.

McPake proud

McPake is delighted with the way his side have transformed into a side that goes into every game expecting to win.

“I’m gutted for the players because I see they’re reaction and how down they are and how sad they are that they’ve lost a game,” he said.

“But I’m also very proud of this run that they’ve went on. That’s down to the players.

“It shows you how quickly those players have shifted their midset from being a team that had lost most of their games to being a team that now believes that they can win every game that they play in.

“We didn’t think we could turn it around as quick. We’re delighted we have and there is still a lot of work to be done.”