Pars need to turn up the heat at home

"We need to be better if we want to be challenging at the top."

Sean Murdoch is hoping that Saturday`s home game against Queen of the South will herald a change in the Pars fortunes. He feels that of late home form has been pretty poor and is well aware that if his team is going to maintain a challenge for the top they must take three points every time they go out at East End Park. The keeper told the media this week:-

"I thought against Dundee United we were a wee bit better, probably the best we have played to be honest in our last five or six games. We were unfortunate not to come away with at least a point. We need to be better if we want to be challenging at the top."

Sean agrees that the team has come off the boil a bit but it would have been difficult to keep their early form going throughout the season.

"The performances have been nowhere near to the manager`s satisfaction which he has made pretty clear. At the start of the season we were just blowing teams away be that is not being disrespectful.

"Top teams do go through bad spells but it is important that the bad spell ends quicker rather than later. We are a good team, we have a good manager, good players and usually a win kick starts you back."

Sean and his defence have only conceded 17 goals in 15 league games and after a free scoring start to the campaign the Pars still have the best goal difference (+13) in the Championship despite not winning in their last five league games. The keeper continued:-

"I just shows you how tight the league is, it is great for the fans. There are five or six teams going for the one spot and that doesn`t include Falkirk or Inverness who probably feel really disappointed not to be in the top half.

"We need to make sure that we stick with the pack, we don`t want to have a gap so we need to pick up points pretty quickly.

"If a team puts three or four results together they can be right back up there. It is great to be involved in. The games are really tight and we go into them trying to win every single game."

Queen of the South are on the same points tally as the Pars and proved at Palmerston the first time the teams met this season that they can match Dunfermline on their day. Sean added:-

"The game at Dumfries was very difficult and a point was a fair result. They have good attacking options in their team so we have to make sure that we are on our game.

"We are a really good team but we are not good enough to only turn up at 50 or 60 per cent. We need to make sure that, myself included, we are at 80 per cent on our game because this league is very tough.

"There are no easy games in this league. On paper Dunfermline had to be fancied against Dumbarton at home but they were a very good team and it just shows you how tight it is."

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