Stephen Kenny Post Hibs

"We asked the players to give me two wins from the three games before the split to give ourselves a chance............

Manager Stephen Kenny was a very happy man with the three precious SPL points won off Hibs:-

"It was a necessary victory; I was very pleased with the performance and the manner of the victory. We just didn't defend and hope to get a break to nick something. We were brave in our approach and got our just reward in the end."

The Pars boss felt that he had got the resolve that he had been asking of his players:-

"We have had resolve on a consistent basis over the last while apart from the second half at Motherwell last week. When we drew with St Mirren a few weeks ago we were nine points adrift, many people were of the view that we should start planning for the First Division - that was the consensus.

"But we didn't have that view ourselves. We asked the players to give me two wins from the three games before the split to give ourselves a chance. They delivered with a great win up at Inverness, we lost last week to Motherwell unfortunately but we followed it up by bouncing back with a great win today."

With the match winning goal not coming until seven minutes from time, had the Dubliner felt that maybe it just wasn't going to be Dunfermline's day:-

"You just don't know because Hibs have players who can cut you open and they have quality. They had a few chances themselves; it was a very open game. There was plenty of room to play for both sides and there was good football. We tried to get at them, they tried to get at us - there were chances at both ends.

"I thought we played well and created a lot in the first half. Territorially Hibs had a bit more in the second half but we were very dangerous on the break ourselves. In the end it was a great goal from Phil McGuire because the timing of his leap and the accuracy of his header were tremendous. He didn't have the best of weeks last week because he wasn't too well, he had a virus. When you have a week like that - give away a penalty and you lose - good players respond in the right way. He is a good player and responded by keeping a clean sheet and scoring that crucial goal. What more can you ask for?"

With on loan Stephen Glass not available to play against his own club and with Stephen Simmons and Darren Young injured the Manager was pleased for the players who came in to the team:-

"They applied themselves and were brave. Jamie McCunnie wanted the ball continually throughout the game - I know that he hasn't had a brilliant time at Dunfermline since he moved here but he is a good player who did a good job for us today."

Jamie McCunnie versus Hibs 07/04/07

Every one of Stephen Kenny's players responded in this match with nothing unlucky about number thirteen, Tam McManus, who haws now won in both the games that he has started for Dunfermline. The Manager explained how his disadvantage of never having heard of Tam McManus appears to have worked in his favour:-

"I saw him play for Falkirk Reserves against us and liked him. I thought he was very bright, very clever with tremendous technique. It didn't happen for him at one or two clubs but that didn't put me off. You see what you like and you go for it. He is doing a good job for us."

McManus misses next weekend's Semi Final because he was Cup tied at Falkirk, but his Manager was more philosophical:-

"Today was the bigger game for us, I hope, we will learn that at the end of the season. It could be a bigger game. That was the key. Next week is next week. Today there was very good football - when you think about it demonstrates the importance of your reserve team. Our reserves earlier in the season, because of the injuries, were just a lot of the youth team filling in for the reserves. But in the last few weeks, the reserves have beaten Hearts 3-0 and beat Motherwell 3-1 a couple of weeks ago. The importance of the reserve team is crucial because we prepare better for reserve games making sure that they are the height of importance to the team. You can see that with Jamie McCunnie and Scott Muirhead coming in out of the cold, putting in a good performance.

"Tam McManus and Jim McIntyre have had good reserve games recently. The fact that they did well got them into the team and got them performing at a level that they could sustain it."

The substitution of Adam Hammill for Scott Muirhead and Mark Burchill for Jim McIntyre appeared to work for the Dunfermline boss:-

"We tried to be positive in other games but it hasn't always worked. You try and do what you think is right. You try to be brave in your approach and again Mark was unlucky coming on not to get a goal. It was a good save from their keeper, he did very well, he held his ground, he stood tall and it was a decent save."

On the suggestion that the Semi Final of Scotland's most prestigious cup was now a bit of a distraction, Stephen Kenny replied:-

"In your life you can go through your career without achieving too much or you can go and try and make your mark. The players we have are capable of doing that. You can accept that it is an unnecessary game or you else you can be excited at the fact you are going to Hampden with an opportunity to get to the Scottish Cup Final that not that many people in their career get opportunities to do that. It has to be viewed as a terrific opportunity to go and create a bit of history for the club."

One Scottish Cup Final since 1968 preys on Stephen Kenny's thinking:-

"You want to make your mark, Dunfermline is a great club and you want to do it justice. We are trying to stay up and to try to get to the Cup Final and winning things if we can. If we are going to win the cup we will have to beat Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and Celtic - I don't know if that has been done before or even attempted.

"We are just going to go and enjoy next week and see if we can progress. We are not going for a day out, you know that Hibernian are a formidable team because I was at the CIS Insurance Cup Final when they turned it on so you know that you are up against it."