Dunfermline have spent a significant part of the season looking over their shoulders while they hovered perilously close to the Championship relegation zone but Nicky Clark feels that the corner has now been turned.
The striker, who fired home a remark-able four goals in Saturday’s 5-1 demolition of Dumbarton at East End Park, feels that they can now put such worries behind them as they look to concentrate on a late season push in the opposite direction.
“We’re looking up the way now,” said Clark, whose four-goal haul took his tally for the season to 13, “and have been doing so for the last few weeks.
“We’ve got a few big games ahead of us, particularly the one against Queen of the South here on Tuesday night.
“Today was massive for us but there are a lot of important games coming up in the next few weeks.
“We’ll be taking each game one at a time and trying to close the gap on the teams above us as much as we can.”
Clark, whose dad Sandy is assistant manager at Dunfermline, was delighted at his individual performance but was quick to pay tribute to his team mates for their contribution to Saturday’s victory.
“It was great to get four goals” he said, while laughingly revealing that his mother had already taken possession of the coveted match ball.
“I did the same playing for Rangers against Forfar but that was a few years ago.
“I had excellent service from my team mates today, especially the wide players, and I’m building up a great understanding with my strike partner Michael Moffat. We’ve played a few games together now and we’re getting goals so long may that continue.”
It was Moffat who was the architect of the Fifers’ seventh-minute opener, his perfectly placed cross finding the unmarked Clark who steered his header beyond Sons’ keeper Alan Martin to establish the foundation for what turned out to be a convincing victory.
Paul McMullan made it 2-0 just before the half-hour with a superb individual goal, his strike sparking off an unsavoury altercation between angry Dumbarton teammates Mark Docherty and Stuart Carswell. and after what was euphemistically described later on by Sons manager Stevie Aitken as a ‘coming together’, Carswell left the field with blood streaming from his face.
Clark nodded home his second of the afternoon from Kallum Higginbotham’s corner on the hour and he made it a hat- trick of headers with 11 minutes remaining when he finished off a cross from substitute Lewis Spence.
His fourth followed shortly afterwards as his low shot deceived Martin although a late strike from Dumbarton’s Daniel Harvie provided the visitors with a small degree of consolation.
Pars boss Allan Johnston paid tribute to Clark but also expressed his satis- faction with the overall team performance.
“Nicky’s a natural goalscorer and that’s why we brought him here” said Johnston. “But the whole team played well today. The boys were outstanding.”