Dunfermline’s Paul Burns says that while he would prefer not to be fighting a relegation battle, at least it’s one taking place in the SPL.
The midfielder was signed from Queen of the South during the summer by Pars boss Jim McIntyre. The Doonhamers are rooted to the bottom of the First Division table and, while Burns sympathises with the plight of his former team-mates, he is just glad he is not involved in the basement battle at Palmerston.
He said: ”When you come up to the SPL, you know you’re stepping up a level and you’re going to be playing against better players. You know it’s going to be hard and that results maybe wouldn’t go your way sometimes, but that’s when you find out the character of the team. If we can dig in and try and get a positive result then we can build from there.
”I would definitely prefer an SPL relegation battle to a First Division one. Obviously I would rather be playing in the SPL, competing against top sides, but we know we can compete because we’ve beaten Dundee United at Tannadice, we’ve beaten Hibs through at Easter Road and St Johnstone away as well.”
Dunfermline travel to Motherwell tonight looking for their first win in seven games, but Burns insists they are capable of winning against the team who are currently the best of the rest outwith the Old Firm.
Burns added: ”Obviously you have to remain upbeat. The boys are all positive and we believe we can go and get a result against Motherwell. We’re not down in any way.
”Maybe we’re not getting the wee breaks, but that probably happens when you’re fighting down there that you don’t get the breaks or the luck.
”We seem to be punished for every mistake we’re making, so maybe that’s playing on people’s minds a wee bit and the lads are maybe scared to make a mistake.
”But in training you can see the boys are still upbeat. We’re remaining positive that we can go on and get something.
”There are still teams round about us. We’ve played Inverness and we’ve been very unlucky not to win both games.
”We know that we can go and compete against teams like that and if we can pick up a result then it changes everything.”
Dunfermline’s return to the SPL has been seriously hampered by injuries, with Kevin Rutkiewicz, Austin McCann, Steven McDougall, Paul Gallacher, Steven Bell and Nicky Phinn already ruled out for the trip to Motherwell.
And Pars boss Jim McIntyre revealed the jinx has struck again with another three players set to miss the game.
He said: ”Joe Cardle will not play any part at Fir Park. He has a virus and we had to call the doctor in. Jason Thomson has also been sick and couldn’t train, and Martin Hardie is out with a knee injury.
”It is unfortunate timing as we already have a lot of lads out injured, but there is no point in feeling sorry for ourselves we just have to keep going.”
Motherwell will be without midfielder Steve Jennings, who is completing his two-match suspension. Long-term injury victim Steven Saunders is the only other player on the sidelines.