Manager post Dundee
Saturday, 23rd Mar 2002With his team sitting fifth in the league at the 33 game split it was a happy Jimmy Calderwood who spoke after the Pars two nil victory over Dundee
"It was my aim two and a half years ago to try and get promotion and consolidate although we did better than that last year. We try and improve every year and want Dunfermline to become a permanent fixture in the top six.
"Then we can start looking at European places and instead of going pre-season to Holland we could go sometime in September or October.
"There have been times when we have been in positions to really something like the Quarter Finals of the CIS cup and last year when we let ourselves down. Then we start thinking have we not got the things to do that. We see them everyday in training but a lot of them have not been at that level.
"Many of them are still young and still learning. They have done tremendously well; it was a great 65 minutes - a lot of pace, a lot of movement, the strength, the will to win. When we got the second goal, Dundee came into it a little. They are a very difficult team to play against because they throw people forward and then they don`t defend so you get caught in two minds.
"Gary Mason against Ketsbaia, Barry Nicholson was in two minds to join the attack. They are scared to go on the counter attack. They are a quality team when they have the ball as they showed. If they had got a goal it could have been a different story although I think we thoroughly deserved to win the game."
Jimmy agreed that it had been a long ten minutes to the end:
"It was because as we have said before; if there is a hard way to do it we will find it. Luckily enough we never got a goal against us so I have some nails left.
"I thought they showed great character under pressure. We had to win and they are a good team but they played tremendous football in the first half. The atmosphere at East End today - I have not seen that very often with an expectation level.
"It makes a difference when the crowd is like that. It shows what is possible. Hopefully they are happy with what they saw and they will come again. The board have done everything with cut prices and backing Jimmy and me all the way. Hopefully we can take it on from here."
The manager had a special word for his goalscorers starting with Barry Nicholson:
"He was so down through the week the wee man. He has got his chance and he has scored. Right or left foot - he is a great striker of the ball, he has been playing tremendously well and it is beyond me why he is not in (the Scotland Squad). If we are looking for players who score from midfield that is what we need. That was a good one for him.
"We had to build him up again, he really was down. That is football; you have your ups and downs. Strong characters normally come through and he has got that.
"Stevie (Crawford) also being in the Scottish squad; he should have scored just before half time and right after half time as well. He had a lot of chances and I thought we thoroughly deserved to win the game. The last twenty minutes obviously you are not going to dominate a team like Dundee for ninety minutes.
"They got a few chances as we lost a bit of confidence - I don`t know why. We worked so hard to get there and luckily enough we are there."
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