Captain’s Log with Jim McAlister

It’s been I while since I have had the opportunity to write my captain’s column and a lot has happened over the last couple of months.

Over the last month or so we have found ourselves sucked into the dogfight at the bottom of the Championship through no fault of our own.

Our consistency, or lack thereof, over the season has been our biggest downfall and we have struggled to put together a run of four or five wins on the bounce.

We have had a lot of games over the last month or so, playing Saturday-Tuesday for much of it, with almost everyone in the squad doing their bit due to form or injuries.

In that time we have drawn a number of games that we probably should have won. Off the top of my head, there were home games against Queen of the South, on the opening day, Falkirk, and, most recently, Inverness.

Away from home, we could’ve picked up three points at Dundee United and Ayr United – twice – and that has been a real source of frustration.

A fortnight ago we suffered what was probably our most disappointing result of the season. We welcomed Alloa to Cappielow with a real opportunity to put daylight between ourselves and the teams at the bottom.

There wasn’t much between the teams in the first half, but we started well in the second and went ahead through Greg Kiltie.

What followed that was unacceptable, from all of us, both in conceding an equaliser so quickly then ultimately losing the game. Both were extremely avoidable goals.

We received lots of criticism in the aftermath – and rightly so. We had several team meetings and video meetings after that game and there was an open floor for everyone to voice their opinions.

That was very beneficial. We fully recognised the situation we were now in and demanded a reaction from each other, to show real character in the remaining four league fixtures.

Thankfully, the required response has transpired in the last two matches, and, although we have taken a draw and a win from two difficult games, we could be sitting with six points from six.

Against Inverness Caley we played some excellent football for the first hour or so and probably should have put the game to bed before they managed to equalise with two minutes left.

I have to say a special thanks to the fans who attended that game. Even after we went a goal behind, you stuck with us and helped the team get back into the game.

It would have been easy to turn against the players with the way things had gone in previous weeks, but you didn’t and that was massive.

Despite the disappointment of drawing, we didn’t let our heads go down but remained upbeat and took the many positives into a massive game against Falkirk.

There was so much at stake on Saturday, and the gaffer and Housty set us up with a game plan that the boys implemented to great effect. We won 2-0 but it really could have been three or four.

The composure shown by Greg and Charlie at the goals deserves a special mention, and it shows our skills school after training every day is paying off.

The result was special to us all given what has happened this season, not to mention what it meant for our points tally and the league table.

A word that has been mentioned loads in the dressing room over the last two weeks is ‘standards’. That is in relation to maintaining our standards, as individuals and as a team.

We have maintained those standards in our last two games and we will require more of the same at Dunfermline this weekend.

It’s another massive 90 minutes in our season and I’d ask that the travelling fans keep up the incredible backing that you gave us at Falkirk.

C’mon the Ton!

Jim