Thomson hoping for a Heart-stopping result

DEREK MCCALLUM

DUNFERMLINE skipper Scott Thomson admits if the Fifers fail to halt Hearts at East End Park tomorrow they can kiss goodbye to their hopes of wresting the SPL third-place position from the Gorgie men.

Thomson, who has fought back from injury to lead the Pars into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals, insists his side has the stature to cope with the Jambos’ physical presence and make it an East End Park double over the Craig Levein’s men following their 2-1 win earlier in the season.

He said: "It’s only four or five weeks since we had the opportunity to overtake Hearts in the league and now we find ourselves trailing them by nine points.

"Although we will never say never, realistically if we don’t get a win then we are not going to catch them.

"They are the sort of side that will always grind out results. They proved that again on Tuesday night coming back from a goal behind to score a later winner and beat Livingston.

"We know exactly how that feels as they have done that to us at Tynecastle twice in recent seasons.

"So it’s very important we concentrate and stay focused for the full 90 minutes.

"Hearts are a big, physical team but we were just commenting ourselves after the Clyde game that so are we.

In the side at present are half-a-dozen players who are over 6ft tall so we feel we can compete with them."

Dunfermline coped well with their Scottish Cup injury crisis, comfortably seeing off Clyde despite having half-a-dozen first team regulars out including striker Stevie Crawford.

Thomson hopes that the Scottish internationalist will win his race for fitness to face the Jambos and he could also be joined by Darren Young who is battling back to full fitness although Jimmy Calderwood’s men will not be back at full strength.

Thomson added: "We are delighted to get through in the Scottish Cup. It was important we stamped our authority on the game and got off to a good start.

"With so many injuries we were stretched but we always felt confident that we would win despite the fact many pundits were tipping Clyde to cause an upset.

"In the game that was abandoned because of snow we felt we were a league apart so the comfortable win didn’t surprise us. But having so many changes means as captain you have got to constantly speak to young players to keep them going.

"And the other experienced players like Scott Wilson do that as well. We have home advantage and other teams seem to be a bit wary of the plastic pitch which is not surprising as we were the same in the beginning. But we train on it every week and are used to it now."

Thomson admits Dunfermline’s last league game at Aberdeen was X-rated viewing for the Fife fans. He insists the 2-0 defeat and dreadful performance was a one-off that has baffled boss Calderwood and he insists there is no chance of it being repeated tomorrow.

"The gaffer and Jimmy Nicholl were fed up with the performance at Aberdeen last Saturday but they were not the only ones, the players were fed up as well.

"We missed some early chances but after they got their second goal we’d have been as well going home. The lads are determined for their own self pride and for the manager’s belief that sort of performance doesn’t happen again."

Thomson insists the off-field financial fiasco that has left Dunfermline teetering on the brink of administration has been put to the back of the players’ minds with football being their big distraction.

"Concentrating on the football takes your mind off everything else. The spirit in the squad is still excellent."

Taken from the Scotsman