Sunday 5th March 2017
DUMBARTON boss Stevie Aitken was in a resolute mood after a heavy defeat to Dunfermline yesterday, vowing to learn lessons and move on positively ahead of this coming Saturday’s home game against Raith.
“They’re a great set of players,” the gaffer stressed. “There have been a few knocks during the season. But what they always do is respond really well.”
While acknowledging the frustration of a poor display, Aitken was determined to refocus quickly.
“We never saw this one coming. Maybe we need an attitude check as well. Maybe we got a bit complacent at times. But we’re still in a really good position. We’ve still got points on the board and lot to play for.
On the match itself, the manager was candid: “There’s disappointment about the way we played today. We caused our own problems the way we defended.
“You can’t give someone of Nicky Clark’s ability free headers when he’s not being picked up in the box.
“We weren’t good enough. The players know that. We didn’t see this one coming, because we’ve been playing well.
“There were times in the game when we were controlling it, creating chances. But there’s no getting away from the fact that goals we lost today were really, really poor.
“Dunfermline needed to be made to work hard for goals, and that’s our biggest disappointment, that we didn’t do that.
“We now have to dust ourselves down, look at what went wrong, and put it right.
On the clash between Stuart Carswell and Mark Doherty after the second Pars goal, Stevie Aitken said: “Nobody seemed to see it. Obviously our players were disappointed to lose goals, there’s been an argument and a coming together.
“I’ll need to look back at the footage, because what happened shouldn’t happen. It’s difficult because I’ve not actually seen it. I spoke to the two of them… [So] I’ll deal with it, we’ll discuss it, and take a decision.”
On Carswell’s substitution, the boss explained: “Stuart’s nose was broken a few weeks ago, so he’s got it put back in place, but he can’t take any contact on it. Blood was coming out of it, so that’s why he came off.”
The overall mood from manager Aitken was robust and determined, however.
“We’ve got nine games left, so we’ll come on from this. We’ll not spend too much time on it, because there’s not much we can do about it. We always say that – because we’re looking forward, forward to the next game.”
Simon Barrow