Joe Chalmers has admitted the coming weeks could shape the rest of Dunfermline Athletic’s season.
With rivals Raith Rovers and Dundee United streaking ahead at the top of the SPFL Championship, the Pars midfielder accepts realistically there may just be two play-off spots still up for grabs.
The Fifers currently occupy one of those in fourth spot and with a four-point lead over Morton in fifth.
But, with three games in six days, starting with Saturday’s trip to Ayr United, Chalmers knows the importance of every game right now.
Ahead of a return to his former club, Chalmers said: “This is a part of the season I enjoy.
“Most of the boys enjoy the games back to back, especially if you’re doing well.
“But if you lose you’ve got a chance to put it right straight away.
“This is when the table starts to take proper shape and you can get a judge of exactly where you are going into January, when teams will be looking to do [transfer] business.
“So, this wee period kind of shapes a lot of teams’ seasons.
Play-off target
“Obviously we take things game by game, but our aim is to try to maintain ourselves in that fourth position just now.
“And to start building a gap to the other teams.
“Our main aim is to try to make the play-offs come the end of the season.
“You’d probably still say there’s two [play-off places up for grabs], but it’s hard to say.
“Our aim is to stay in fourth and build that gap [to fifth], but at the same time we want to still be chipping away and trying to catch Partick Thistle.
“That’s going to be difficult but we certainly don’t want to be giving up on third or on trying to climb the table.”
After the trip to Somerset Park, Dunfermline have the small matter of the Fife derby against Raith on Tuesday and an outing at Hampden against Queen’s Park the following Friday.
They go into a busy week on the back of a poor performance against Arbroath that at least finished on a positive with Craig Wighton’s injury-time equaliser.
The Pars have suffered themselves with the concession of late goals this season, most notably against Raith and Dundee United.
But Chalmers admits it was a boost to know they can produce their own comeback if needed.
‘Points we’ve let slip’
The 29-year-old added: “We didn’t play very well over the course of the Arbroath game; it wasn’t one of our best games.
“Teams can nick points but this season, when we haven’t quite been at our best, it seems we haven’t been able to nick points.
“We’ve been quite disappointed in that because we were good at that last season. When we weren’t at our best, we still managed to grind something out of games.
“But, this season, there’s been a few points we’ve let slip that we should have held onto.
“It’s important sometimes when you don’t play well and it’s not been quite your day you go right to the end. And it was nice to pick up a point for a change.”
