All season Jim McIntyre has been preaching to his Dunfermline players that the next match is the most important one. Never will that be truer than at Greenock on Saturday.
The ups and downs of a long season have left the Pars needing just one more win against Morton to secure the first division title, and the East End Park boss will be telling his side to grasp the opportunity.
He said, “The players know how close they are and they know what the result means.
“This really is a day for strength. We need to be strong-minded and be strong in everything we do and most importantly we need to have a belief.
“You need to know what you need to do to get over the line. That’s what we’ll be trying to do.
“A lot of players haven’t been in this position before but we have four or five who have and hopefully their experience in that can help the rest through.
“I never had a promotion fight myself but I was in couple of relegation ones. I would say there’s more pressure in that.
“The players know what’s at stake. As far as I’m concerned it’s about channelling our thoughts in the right direction and not getting ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve been approaching all our last few games like they were cup finals to get us into this position, taking them one at a time.
“Saturday’s no different, it’s another one. But we know that if we win this one, that’s it. So, the incentive is there for all to see.”
According to McIntyre there’s no danger of the Dunfermline players forgetting that they’ll be facing a team highly motivated to deny them their promotion party.
He pointed out, “Morton have beaten us twice already this season, so if we ever needed a reminder that we won’t get things our own way, there it is.
“Cappielow is always one of the toughest away fixtures in the league and they’re going for their highest placed finish in a while in Allan Moore’s first season in charge.
“So we know what kind of game we’re going to get and we need to be at our best to get any sort of result at all. But we’re going into the game with great confidence, we’re playing well and we’re scoring goals. Saturday was as good as the start of the season when we were playing exceptionally well.
“The pitch will suit us as well because it’s a good playing surface.
“To have two games left and to be four points in front, I think any manager would have snatched your hand off for that at the start of the season, and I’m no different.
Continued…
“It’s all about trying to finish the job now.”
Success on Saturday would be pretty much as good as it gets for a young manager, McIntyre admitted.
“It would mean everything to me,” he said. “That’s why we’re in the game-to try and be as successful as we can and to win things.
“You know you’re not going to win things in the SPL unless you’re the manager of Celtic or Rangers, albeit there’s a chance in the cups.
“The first division is a really tough league and it would mean everything, personally and collectively, to win it.
“But it’s not really about me, it’s about the club because it’s such an important thing for us to get back into the SPL, with the way the finances are at the minute.
“It’s not just Dunfermline. All the bigger clubs in the first division are striving to get up because they know the carrot of the finances is there, and it really does help things.
“We’re no different to four or five teams.”
Influential midfielder Martin Hardie has recovered from an ankle injury and should be available.