Jason Talbot saw red on his arrival at Dunfermline but now has his sights firmly set on ensuring there’s a silver hue to the end of the season.
The summer signing from Livingston began life at his new club with a two-match suspension after being sent-off in a pre-season friendly against Hibernian and found his route to a starting berth blocked by his new team-mates’ sparkling form.
However, the 29-year-old has started the last two games and helped Allan Johnston’s side bounce back from defeat to Peterhead in the league last weekend by pulling off a League Cup shock against Dundee on Tuesday night.
Hoping for another victory at home to Stranraer this afternoon, he said: “Obviously, the red card was my fault, I can’t complain, and when I was out suspended the team was doing perfectly.
“To be in a squad that’s winning is great anyway. Whether I was playing or not doesn’t matter, at the end of the day it’s results that matter. I was happy either way.
“It’s a massive club here. The fan-base is absolutely fantastic and we can do something special this season.
“We were really disappointed with the defeat at Peterhead but we responded the right way by winning against Dundee on Tuesday.
“Good teams go and win the next game, better teams go and win the next three or four.
“That’s what we’ve got to do now. That will put Peterhead behind us, because I think that was just a small blip.”
As a full-back, Talbot relishes every clean sheet he and his fellow defenders can keep, but the emphasis so far has been on the prolific start the team has made at the other end of the pitch.
The Pars have rattled in an astonishing 29 goals in seven games, with 11 coming from the boot of Faissal El Bakhtaoui.
It is the kind of form that will have had other teams sitting up and taking notice, but Talbot is hopeful the Fifers can stay together as they target the title and promotion back to the Championship.
He added: “There’s speculation and there are rumours about interest in some players, but sometimes you don’t know how true it is. Hopefully we’ll still have the players we need to win the league.”