Dunfermline boss Jim McIntyre admits the first thing on his mind when the final whistle blows at the end of a Pars game is how Hibs have fared. That’s because he knows the two teams are now involved in a two-horse race for SPL survival.
McIntyre and Easter Road boss Pat Fenlon have both spoken of their desire to drag other teams into the relegation dogfight. However, with both sides having lost again this week, there remains an eight-point gap to Inverness in 10th and 10 points to St Mirren in fourth bottom.
With the clock now counting down towards the end of the season and a tough away trip to St Johnstone in prospect on Saturday McIntyre has recognised his players face a tense face-off with the Edinburgh side to stay in the SPL.
He said: ”Right now it’s between us and Hibs, and the only way that will change is if us and Hibs put a few results together to draw ourselves closer to the teams above us.
”Of course it’s only natural that their result is the first one we’ll look for when we come off. The first thing they’ll ask will be how Dunfermline have got on and vice versa. That’s just the nature of the beast.
”I wouldn’t class it as exciting, but when it gets to this stage of the season and there’s not a lot of games left, the first result you’re looking for is the team that’s next to you in a battle with you.
”The bottom line is I want them to lose, as they do with us. It’s not being out of order saying that it will be the exact same thoughts for them.
”But we can’t affect what happens across there, so we have to channel all our energies into what we can do and what we can produce, rather than anything about Hibs.”
Dunfermline lost again on Wednesday against high-flying Celtic, but McIntyre took heart from the fact his side never gave in and kept the score to a respectable 2-0. He believes that resilience could prove vital at McDiarmid Park and in the weeks ahead.
He added: ”Celtic are playing such free-flowing stuff just now and they are so full of confidence that going there with an open set-up would have been damaging for us.
”The morale’s fine. When you lose heavily it does affect confidence, there’s no doubt, and at this time of the season that’s the last thing you want, especially given the improvement in recent performances.”
Defender Kevin Rutkiewicz has been sent for a scan on the injury he suffered against Celtic. The 31-year-old had to be removed at half-time at Parkhead and has been left nursing a severely swollen ankle injury, which it is feared could keep him sidelined for the coming weeks.
McIntyre, who earlier this week lost Iain Turner and Nick Phinn for more than a month because of injury, said: ”Kevin Rutkiewicz had to come off at half-time on Wednesday night and we’ve had him scanned. We’ll know the result of that later.
”His ankle has swollen up quite badly. It doesn’t look good, but we’ll just need to wait for the results. Kevin has been superb since he came back into the side and if we do lose him for any length of time that will be a blow to us.”