The SPL season may only be in its infancy, but tonight’s Friday night football at Pittodrie has the look of a pivotal 90 minutes for Dunfermline.
The Pars are looking to come out the other side of a poor run of results, the last of which was a battering by Rangers at the weekend, while Aberdeen are in the middle of yet another crisis.
Pars captain Austin McCann made no attempt to downplay the importance of the match.
He said: ”Is it our biggest game of the season? Definitely, yes, because of the situation the two teams are in. We’ve not picked up as many points as we did at the start of the season, so it’s getting to that crucial stage where we need to start getting more points and even wins.
”We’re going to go up to Aberdeen with a game plan to get something out of the game.
”We didn’t over-analyse last weekend. We’ve got to learn our lessons. We got punished for our mistakes and for not starting well, and the most disappointing thing is we didn’t really give Rangers a game.
”We didn’t react to the goals we lost and I think that was the most disappointing thing.
”We need to quickly get it out of the system, because we’ve got a massive, massive game against Aberdeen. It’s important if we want to move up the league table.
”The longer you go without a win the harder it becomes. Getting beat and losing a few goals can affect the confidence.
”Training’s been good, it’s been lively, and we’re looking forward to the game.”
The deeper into the match Dunfermline can keep the score level, or even better be ahead, the greater the pressure that will come from the stands on the home team.
McCann said: ”Aberdeen are a big club with a history and so on, and it’s been tough for them. The longer they go the harder it will become for them. They’ll be desperate for a result as well.”
The two teams are the SPL Friday night guinea pigs.
McCann said: “We’ve had two lunch-time kick-offs in the last couple of weeks and a Monday night one at the start of the season. Now it’s Friday night. You’ve got to adapt and get on with it.
“I won’t enjoy having a Saturday afternoon off because my wife is planning to take me shopping!”
He added: “But if we can get a win at Pittodrie it would be a good start to the weekend.”
Jim McIntyre’s squad should be boosted by the return of Craig Easton and Steven McDougall, but Martin Hardie, Nicky Phinn and Kevin Rutkiewicz are still sidelined.
The Pars boss said: “We’ll be expecting a highly motivated Aberdeen team to be fighting for a win. But we’re looking to bounce back from our most disappointing performance of the season.”