Staking claims for first team starts
Wednesday, 12th Nov 2014John Potter warns "okay is not good enough to get into the first team.".
- - Listen to coach John Potter`s post match comments
Under 20s coach John Potter was delighted with his teams 5-0 win away from home to Dundee, all the more because the Premier League side fielded several of their first team squad. Granted Dunfermline also fielded a side on the strong side but the second half demolition pleased the coach and Jim Jefferies and Neil McCann who watched from the comfort of the Directors Box. Potts said:-
"They had a lot more experience than us but I thought we were excellent from minute one to the ninety. We controlled most of the game but never took our chances in the first half. We told them at half time that it was a great performance but you have to do it at the business end of the pitch."
Although poised at 0-0 at the interval Dunfermline fairly reacted after the break. Smith hit a hat trick within nine minutes of the second half to put the Pars into an unassailable position with half an hour still to play. Potts described it:-
"We did that in the second half with Allan Smith's goals. We created loads of chances and it could have been more. We looked really really positive it was great. We said at half time that the way the game was going reminded us of first team games.
"The most important thing is to create but also score from them. Allan has a few chances in the first half when he should have scored. It was exactly the same performance in the second half but we put the ball in the back of the net."
The breakthrough came in 51 minutes and the coach felt going into the lead made all the difference:-
"If Allan had not scored then he probably wouldn't have hit the second one but made the pass. He took the confidence to go and take the penalty. He could have had another one at the back post from a corner."
In the post match analysis Jim Jefferies and Neil McCann praised the team's performance. The second goal was hit early from 20 yards out and came from an option that could be better used in the coach's opinion:-
"We have good strikers of a football and we do a lot of shooting from the edge of the box. We are maybe needing to do that a bit more. We have told them 'if you get a chance go and have a go'. Sometimes you can overpass it but it proved tonight if you hit it well enough you will score a goal."
Dundee were reduced to ten men on the hour after Iain Davidson was yellow carded for preventing Gozie Ugwu from finishing close in to goal. The former Raith man was heard shouting 'you have got to be joking' to referee Mike Roncone but he obviously added something a bit stronger and a second yellow was immediately flashed. Down to ten men only to go another behind when Smith completed his hat trick from the spot, there was no way back for the 'Dee. Potts was pleased that his team continued to press and scored a further two goals.
"We could have sat back and taken it easy but we didn't. We wanted more goals and were quite hungry for more. We did things properly and got more chances. We could probably have scored more goals. Our fitness was great; we were really fit and strong."
Hitting a hat trick in the Under 20s is just the medicine for a striker trying to break into a first team that has found the net just three times in their last four league matches. John Potter commented:-
"We spoke to the players yesterday and last week. The boys who are playing in the under 20s have been doing okay, but okay is not good enough to get into the first team. They have got to give the manager a problem. The manager is not going to put them in his team just for the sake of it. They will only get in the team if they are doing the business.
"They all did that against Dundee so they all have a case. If they don't get into the team then they have to do the same again. That is the kind of performance that they have to keep doing to to get an opportunity in the first team. Alright is not good enough, they have to go and do really really well like they did against Dundee."
Jim Jefferies gave up the chance to watch upcoming opponents Brechin City and Stirling Albion at Glebe Park on Tuesday night to enable his players to impress him in person at Dens Park.
"He felt it was important to go to Dundee. We can have Brechin and Stirling watched at the weekend. We have enough reports on them and he thought it was important to see how some of the older ones and some of the younger ones who are starting to push, were playing. He will have a few decisions to make by the weekend; good decisions for a change!
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