Dunfermline are glad they’ve got a quick chance to get the 3-1 weekend home defeat to Morton out of their system, defender Alex Keddie has insisted.
The 30-year-old centre-half held his hands up for his part in the shock loss, which has left the Pars six points adrift of first division leaders Raith Rovers.
Keddie knows that standards must rise from the weekend and he believes Tuesday night’s home game against his former club is the ideal way to get over the Morton defeat and rekindle their promotion challenge.
“The way we performed was not good at all and I hold my hands up for the first goal,” he said.
“As a unit we did not perform well enough.
“We were playing at home where we like to dominate games and win them. But unfortunately that didn’t happen as we gave them a heads start by losing early goals at both the start of the first half and second half.
“However, there’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves at this stage of this season we have to look to this game tomorrow and get a result.
“Obviously, you just look forward to the next game and hopefully we will get a good result.”
Keddie said that he still keeps in touch with some of his former Ross County team-mates but once the whistle is blown the friendship will be put on hold.Friends”Once you cross the white line you have no friends in football,” he added.
“I still speak to a few of the boys up there but all we are looking for tomorrow is the three points. I just want to get the Morton game out of my system.
“Hopefully if I’m selected I will play well, get a result and get back to the way it was before Saturday.
“Personally and for the team it was a ‘bad day at the office,’ but fortunately we have good enough players that it is not going to happen a lot.
“Now we have the chance after three days to put it right and get the fans back on our side and show them that we’re going for the league there’s no other way about it.
“However, sometimes the fans have to remember that we hurt just as much as they do when we don’t win.”
Pars boss Jim McIntyre also feels his side will have to forget the Morton defeat but feels he has the squad to cope with the challenges ahead.
“The good thing is that we have this game in midweek to try to get Saturday’s game out of the system very quickly,” he said.
“We created three to four really good chances to score ourselves but to concede the goals in the manner we did was the most disappointing thing.
“So I’ll be looking for a positive response and reaction.
“There are no easy games in this division but it makes it harder when you give them goals.”
He continued, “Obviously the fans were disappointed on Saturday and we totally understand that. But we’ve got this game tomorrow and we’re looking forward to it.
“Ross County had a good result at the weekend and we had a close game against them up in Dingwall two weeks ago, so we know we’re in for a tough game.”
County welcome back defender Jonny Flynn from suspension. However, Darren McCormack and Steven Craig are still sidelined.