Stubbs’ Easter Summation

Head coach Alan Stubbs has refused to blame the recent misfiring of the strikers for our current run of form as the defeat to Queen of the South made it three losses on the trot.

With a two nil defeat to Rangers, and then a two one defeat to Raith, Stubbs was speaking ahead of the game about how he wanted the side to show their character and return to winning ways in the match against Queens of the South but that wasn’t to be as they sent us to a one nil defeat.

It also meant a run of three games with only one goal scored, and in quotes carried by the Edinburgh News Stubbs was adamant it wasn’t just one unit on the pitch that was to blame, or needed to improve.

‘You always want to see your strikers scoring goals, but just because we`re not scoring goals, it`s not necessarily down to the strikers. We score goals as a team. When we`re not scoring goals, we have to ask if we`re creating enough chances. When we were scoring goals, we were scoring from all areas of the team, so it`s not just the strikers who haven`t been scoring. Yes, it`s something we`ve looked at and spoken about but the strikers are not necessarily the main reason we`ve not been scoring. As long as they keep getting in the right places and doing the right things, that`s the most important thing.’

With that disappointment behind us, we headed into Wednesday evening’s trip to Dumbarton looking for goals and a return to winning ways.

And we got both, with goals from Paul Hanlon and Jason Cummings giving us a two one victory against ten man Dumbarton to bring our three game losing streak to an end.

Stubbs said after the game that the performance showed the bottle of the team and he felt they had answered many of the recent critics, but he had to admit that had we been more ruthless in the match we could’ve seen it out far more comfortably than we did.

But he did feel it was a deserved victory, but relief wasn’t the overriding emotion at full time.

‘No, because I did not think we have been playing badly. I knew it was going to come. We should have won the game more comfortably and should have done, but we did win it and I thought we showed a bit of bottle. Farid might have had two or three but there were a few who could have had two or three. Farid is coming back and I thought he tried too hard. He just needs to let his game come to him but the goals will come, I have no doubt about that.’

With a missed penalty in the game, there was also the sending off to contend with when Jordan Forster was headbutted, but Stubbs praised his discipline and his reaction to the situation.

‘I thought Jordon`s behaviour was impeccable. It could have been a lot worse but the discipline of my players was very good.’

Stubbs did admit, going back to the issue of being clinical that he was angry at full time with how close it was given the chances we had and he had a little rant at the players that he hopes they take on board, because it is in their best interests to do so.

‘It would have been a travesty if we had come away tonight without three points and I was angry at the end with the players. But it`s because I want them to reward themselves when they are win winning positions in games. At 2-1 you just never know in football. Dumbarton were always going to launch balls in to the box. I don`t think anyone could have argued had we won the game 5-1, so that`s why I was angry. I want them to manage the game better. We took too many risks, playing balls into midfield rather than just keeping possession. But I had my rant at the end of the game and it was over. I`m delighted for them and now we are nearly there.’