Greg Shields Post QOS

"We threw a chance away again but we got away with it with St Johnstone only drawing. It is fine talking about other teams around us, at the end of the day it is us we have to worry about, nobody else."

Greg Shields was last man out of the dressing room after the defeat at home to Queen of the South and he was still at a bit of a loss for reasons when he talked exclusively to the website.  He explained that efforts from the start to pass the ball from the back had been difficult.

"We did get out a few times, some times it was tight and it went out to Burkie came back to Austin or Nipper. They were coming more and more into the game and then they scored.

"Rory Loy had a great chance and it came back to Bell, Nick Phinn cut it back to him who headed it to Bayne. It was a great chance and Bayne should have scored. After that Nicky could have got in but his touch was too far ahead of him. Obviously they got the goal after that and their tails were up."

Greg said that after Queens went ahead in 29 minutes the Manager was looking for a reaction from the team:-

"We never got that. I felt the reaction we got was when we came out in the second half and we came a bit more predictable. We put the balls in behind for Bell, Bayne and Loy and we did create a few chances out of it.   David Graham had a great chance that he hit straight at the goalkeeper.  That was not like David Graham because in training all last week he has looked exceptional.  He is a cocky type of boy, he has fitted in quite well with the squad and I actually thought he would have scored that."

While the score remained at 1-0 the Pars had chances:-

"Nipper had a chance that he hit by and wee Burkie had a chance as well so we did create more chances than we have over the last couple of weeks.  I think against Clyde and Airdrie we were really lucky." 

Queen of the South keeper Lee Robinson had a good game while at the other end Stephen Dobbie's second QOS goal was a good goal.  It did come from a mistake by Scott Wilson and the big skipper injured himself in the process sustaining a dead leg.

In his post match comments, Jim McIntyre expressed great disappointment about how his team's heads appeared to go down after the second goal went in.  He and all Pars fans usually expect Dunfermline to finish strongly in the final 15 minutes especially when they are playing towards their favourite McCathie Stand end.

"We just seemed to be deflated, there wasn't any one of us getting on at each other and trying to push on.  I never felt like that in the game, I usually notice things that go on.

"We didn't really have a chance after that.  Kirk had a chance when he could have chipped the goalie with 20 minutes to go.  That might have changed how the game went."

Greg refuted any suggestion that after the second goal went in that the team gave in:-

"People might have thought now that the Manager has pointed it out, that we were trying to play the game out but that was certainly not the case."

Moving on to consider the severity of the task that is getting out of the First Division Greg described every game as hard:-

"I can never look at a game and think how many can we beat this team by or that we are going to win today.  Every game is as hard as playing against a top team.  I think we have struggled against the bottom teams this year - Clyde, Airdrie, Morton - they are our Achilles heel.  We have probably done better against the better teams.  It is just the way the league is."

There is only 15 points between Airdrie United at the bottom and St Johnstone at the top. The Perth team might have been further ahead but they, like Dunfermline, have dropped points along the way that means the run in to the title decider is going to have twists and turns.  Greg lamented the fact that with St Johnstone drawing at Cappielow the opportunity to close the gap had once again been lost:-

"We threw a chance away again but we got away with it with St Johnstone only drawing.  We have to go to Morton still and St Johnstone have been there.  It is fine talking about other teams around us, at the end of the day it is us we have to worry about, nobody else."

With a certain realism the Pars defender conceded:-

"The disappointing thing is we have not played well since Queen of the South away, that was on December 13^th, seven games ago.  That day we warranted the win, but were lucky to get away with it.

"There have been so many games this season, like Dundee where we have not got points or where we have got points that maybe we shouldn't have.  We have lost four games out of the last eight at home after starting off so strong at home."

The reaction of the East End Park fans to seeing their team perform with such inconsistency at home comes as no surprise to Shields, after all he has been through possibly worse times when Stephen Kenny and David Hay were in charge:-

"You hear the boos when you go off at half time and the boos when you come on at half time.  It is not any different to what it was two or three weeks ago.  It is up to us to try and change that to try and excite the fans.  At this moment they don't feel as if  we are doing that.

"The Manager is saying that we go into our shells, but we cannot go into our shells or it will just become worse. We are sitting fourth in the table, we are six points off the top and the league is so tight.  People are frustrated because we have had so many opportunities to go on a good run or claw back and we have never done it.

"The players are disappointed.  It is easy for me to say that, people are going to look at that and say are they disappointed or are they not but I take every result home with me.  I take it to heart, it is just what I have always done.  That still doesn't explain why it happened, why we lost."

Greg felt no one should feel that Dunfermline had any divine right to beat Queen of the South:-

"They had not beaten us in the First Division. Obviously they beat us in the Challenge Cup, but it was a good record we had against them.  All records do come to an end, but it is disappointing when you see how big the game was today.

"It is going to have to be a really good run in the 15 games left.  No games are easy.  I have thought that since the Airdrie game when we played them away and won 3 - 1.  I thought what a difference from when we played them the first game of the season to the away game where we scored three wonder goals.  We probably shouldn't have won that game.  That's when you realise how tight the league is.

"This is a great opportunity for us to go up this year, it's going to be harder next year for whoever doesn't go up.  The Club that comes down will have more money than all the rest of the teams. That's a way a way, that's next season, but it is in your mind.  We have to try and take this opportunity, but we don't seem to be doing that recently."