Lawless confident for three points
Monday, 21st Mar 2022“It will be a different type of game I reckon but it will maybe leave a bit more space for the attacking players to go out there and express themselves.”
Steven Lawless made 228 appearances for Partick Thistle in the six years from August 2012 and he says that he is really looking forward to welcoming his former club to East End Park on Tuesday night. He is, however, in no doubt of the sizeable difficulty facing him and his team mates as the fourth place team in the league come in search of three points from their game in hand. Three points that would take them up a place, above Inverness Caledonian Thistle and open a six point gap between them and fifth placed Raith Rovers.
Steven who has not played against Thistle since leaving after their Premiership play offs in May 2018, has followed the Jags progress this season, their first back in the Championship after winning League One last season:-
“They have had a good season and will be trying to push on and try and stay in the title fight. I have had a text off one of the boys already talking about our performance on Friday night. I am sure that they will have watched that and I don’t think they will come here underestimating us.
“The same goes for us as well. We need to go into that game and try and put in the same kind of performance as we did on Friday night. If we do, I am confident that we can take three points even though we didn’t on Friday.”
Dunfermline are also desperately chasing points from their game in hand with a win capable of opening up a three point lead over Queen of the South. The 30 year old who joined Dunfermline during the January transfer window is optimistic that Thistle’s push for a play off place might help his team:-
“Morton fair play to them, got their goal but they didn’t really offer very much in the second half going forward. It was quite hard to break them down whereas if we play our game, Thistle need to play their game. Hopefully that will leave spaces and we can get in behind them and get chances and get goals. It will be a different type of game I reckon but it will maybe leave a bit more space for the attacking players to go out there and express themselves.”
Friday night pundits Jack Ross and Leanne Crichton considered Dunfermline unlucky not to get a win on Friday against Morton and Steven is hopeful that the good performances can be translated into good results. He reflected on the 1-1 draw in front of the BBC Scotland cameras:-
“I think the boys put in every last ounce of energy to be honest. Maybe we should do better in certain situations as a team but overall I think we were happy with our performance just disappointed that we never got the three points. That seems to be the way that it’s going just now.
“But if we continue to play like that I’m sure that it will turn eventually, there is only so much luck that can go against you. I don’t know how that chance at the end has not gone in to make it 2-1. I have not seen the offside goal back but these things seem to go against you when you are bottom of the table. We will keep grinding away and hopefully it will turn.”
Steven has deputised as captain in the last two games but confessed that the armband doesn’t change anything when it comes to his game:-
“You just try and take it like every other game. That what I try and do anyway but that is only because Graham Dorrans has been missing out. I am happy to have it and it is a great honour to have the captaincy but I just try and put in my normal performance and try and help the team as much as possible. We have not won since I became the captain but that will be next on the list.”
As well as being one of the senior players Steven’s choice as captain might be something to do with him being loud on the park. He added:-
“I don’t really know if I am vocal in the right way, I just like shouting! Be that at the ref or anything but I try and lead by example. Even if you are not having the best game, I have a lot of experience in the top league so I just try and help the boys as much as possible but the majority of shouting that I do is at the ref and the linesmen. That is why your throat goes.”
Asked what needs to change to turn Friday night’s performance for a draw into three points on Tuesday night, Steven suggested the need to show a bit more composure in the final third and maybe stop snatching at things:-
“That final ball was lacking a bit in the first half, I think the second half was a lot better because we had numerous chances but we didn’t manage to stick the goal away earlier and give ourselves more of a final push.
“Even at that we scored and we had a chance after it when we hit the post. Lewis McCann had a chance from the rebound so we are disappointed that we never got the three points but performance wise I think if we put that in from now until the end of the season we will pick up points.”
The Morton match statistics credited Dunfermline with 25 shots only four of which were on target and Steven felt that could be down to a number of things:-
“When you look at the shots that we were having, we worked the ball well and working it back to somebody on the edge of the box. I think we had three chances at the very beginning of the first half that just went the other side of the post. I had shots blocked as well but I think they did really well to limit the number of free shots that we had.
“A lot of times they had bodies round about it and got deflections for corners out of it. Although it was 25 shots I’m not sure how many of them were clear cut. We had a few in the first half that didn’t become a shot where Kev (O’Hara) thought the boy was getting a touch from Dom’s ball.
“It is these things that we need to brush up on as a team, not just the strikers. There have been chances throughout the team that maybe we snatched at because of where we are in the league. I think we can take confidence from the way we played and hopefully it will turn eventually.”
Had the late equaliser not come it would have been really disappointing given the performance that the Pars put in and the numerous chances that they had. John Hughes called it domination and Morton were pinned in for the majority of the second half. The equaliser was celebrated wildly by the East End faithful and Steven felt had it come earlier it could have created an even greater lift:-
“It shows great character that we kept going, because we had chances before that but we kept plugging away. Credit to the fans as well because I think they noticed the effort and the performance that we put in.
“The majority of them clapped us off, that was massive. They obviously understand the position that we are in and the fight that we are putting up. We just take that into the next game and try and get the three points again.”
Manager previews match on PARStv
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