James McPake insists he will have no problem with Raith Rovers lording it over Dunfermline and poking fun on social media – if they go on and win promotion to the Premiership.
But the Pars boss reckons their Fife rivals are playing a dangerous game as football has a ‘horrible way of kicking you’.
Rovers have been unapologetic in the way they have taken the mickey out of Dunfermline during a run of four straight derby triumphs.
From blurring out the East End Park side’s name in a league table to depicting their car blowing up with its wheels coming off in a cartoon Championship title race, Raith have targeted their neighbours.
Some of it has been taken as harmless banter. But the illustration portraying Lewis Vaughan as a king on his throne, whilst Pars pair Kyle Benedictus and Craig Wighton – both former Rovers players – kneel at his feet was deemed by many as overstepping the mark.
Dunfermline striker Alex Jakubiak – the driver of the crashing comic strip car – this week branded some of the material as ‘a bit childish’ and insisted his club would show more respect if they were to emerge victorious from Saturday’s latest meeting.
And, asked by Courier Sport for his take on the hullabaloo, McPake is adamant there should be justification for getting one over your foes.
He said: “Each club to their own. Clubs have got the right to celebrate achievements.
McPake: ‘Not going to cry over it’
“When Hearts won that Scottish Cup final in 2012 and I played in it [for Hibernian], had there been anything on social media, would I have been annoyed? No.
“They’d just won the Scottish Cup. It’s fair game.
“We certainly wouldn’t do it, unless we had achieved something like winning the league.
“For what I’ve seen of the Raith stuff, if it gets them traction and gets them publicity then great for the football club.
“I would just be pretty careful because this game’s got a horrible way of kicking you.
“I’m not going to cry over it. It is a bit of banter, but it wouldn’t be what we would do.
🎨 The Race Is On.
12 games to, starting with Morton tomorrow night.
Tickets are just £10 for Adults and £5 for Under-16s.
Posters will be available at Fife schools tomorrow and from the Club Shop pre-match.#YouBelong pic.twitter.com/qygy8cz4eD
— Raith Rovers Football Club (@RaithRovers) February 26, 2024
“That’s not to say our way is the right way. But the best time to do it is if you’ve won the league or got promoted through the play-offs, which I know is very tough to do because I’ve done it.
“Then, it’s great fun, for everybody involved.
“I think if it was me I would be waiting until we had achieved something.”
After four straight defeats to their rivals, Dunfermline do not need any more motivation for what looks like being the last of six meetings this season.
It all kicked off with a 1-1 draw in the Viaplay Cup group stages, when the Pars earned the bonus point with a penalty-kicks success. Since then, each league encounter has finished with a single-goal victory for Raith.
DAFC were bullied, says McPake
However, the Scottish Cup clash in November, which wended with a meek 3-0 defeat for McPake’s side, still annoys and frustrates the East End Park boss.
He commented:: “The derby games have been decent enough, apart from the the Scottish Cup tie. That was a great day for them.
“We were poor, we got bullied on the day.
“They’ve got the points from the games. It doesn’t matter how well you play if you consistently lose those types of games and lose points.
“You can be great but if you don’t put the ball in the back of the net it doesn’t matter.
“Like the game up there the last time, we got hit by a sucker punch in the last minute and lost the game. Nobody really remembers how well you’ve performed.
“And, if you’re being brutally honest, it doesn’t matter how well you’ve performed. You’d much rather have done what happened that day and won the game.
“In the game here in the cup, we were far too relaxed, too stand-offish. We never laid a glove on them that day, and that game disappoints me the most out of them all.
“You can lose a last-minute goal and you’re devastated and you think you should have won the game.
McPake: ‘Fans are due a win’
“But the manner of that performance hurts us. In the next game, we were a bit better but we’re still putting that right.
“Because that can’t happen again, in any game but let alone a derby.”
With Jakubiak insisting Dunfermline are ‘due Raith one’, McPake added: “It doesn’t matter if we’re due them anything or not.
“If anybody is due anything, it’s the fans. They want to see a derby win.
“For us, it’s a game we want to go there and be competitive in, and play our way.
“The squad is better now and it’s stronger, and we’re looking forward to it.”
