James McPake confident points will follow performances as Dunfermline boss talks second quarter, targets and league position

James McPake accepts Dunfermline desperately need to make big improvements in the second quarter of the campaign.

But he is convinced if they can maintain their recent progress in performances that the points will definitely follow.

The Pars accumulated just six points from the opening round of fixtures, winning just one game – against rivals Raith Rovers – and drawing three more from nine league matches.

There were mitigating circumstances behind the team’s slow start, with a lack of recruitment and injuries at least partly to blame for a dire run of six straight defeats through from the Premier Sports Cup into the Championship.

However, Saturday’s 2-1 reverse against sworn enemies Falkirk that kicked off the second quarter was just a third loss in nine games for the East End Park men.

Whilst frustrating and extremely tough to take, Dunfermline cannot afford to stew on the setback as they prepare to face Livingston intent on kick-staring their season.

“I’ve never really been too big on splitting the season into quarters,” McPake told Courier Sport. “Whether that’s been with a positive start or a negative start.

“But this one, as a group, we’ve looked into it. We’ve reviewed it, we’ve sat down as a group together.

“We’ve looked at the games where we felt, in particular, that we didn’t deserve any more.

‘This next quarter has to be better’

“And the ones where we let ourselves down and could have got three points as opposed to one.

“So, we’ve gone over it. What we do know is that this next quarter has to be better for what we’re trying to do and for where we want to be in the end, come May time.

“In terms of performances, we feel things have been picking up. But we know the results have to follow.

“So, we need to take the performances and not let that drop in this next quarter.

“If we do that, then the points total will be better.”

Dunfermline host Livingston sitting in second-bottom in the Championship and a massive 20 points behind leaders Falkirk.

They are also ten points adrift of Partick Thistle in fourth, albeit with the benefit of a game in hand.

“As a group, of course we’ve not been happy with it,” added McPake of the start the Pars have made to the campaign.

“I understand the way the table looks. Every team will be looking at it and seeing where they should be or whatnot.

“We can only focus on our own team and we certainly know the targets that we would have set out at the start.”