Dealer Macca looks for aces

Ally McRoberts • Published 27 Jan 2012 09:30 0 Comments

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Jim McIntyre was a frustrated figure on the Fir Park touchline as his Pars side slumped to a 3-1 defeat against 10-man Motherwell. Photo: Craig Brown.

JIM McINTYRE is having to adopt Del Boy Trotter tactics to "wheel and deal" the Pars' way out of relegation bother.

The Pars boss is still in the market for bargains despite his transfer fund getting slashed in the wake of the Scottish Cup exit to Inverness.

But the board are backing him and chairman John Yorkston confirmed, "The manager still has the ability to wheel and deal.

"He's got some money left to spend and, as happened in the Pat Clarke situation, if he gets somebody out then he can use that money as well.

"We are backing him, giving him extra resources and we've allocated a certain amount a week the manager can spend.

"The number of players he brings in will depend on how he spends that money."

After signing former team-mate Mark Kerr on his return from Greece, McIntyre has now shown an interest in former Dons defender Stuart Duff.

He's been training with the club after playing in the Maltese Premier League with Qormi and is another who used to play alongside the Pars boss in his days at Tannadice.

A deal could be done in time for Duff to face his old team on Saturday although the boss is still smarting after the Inverness loss meant Athletic missed out on a potential £150,000 TV deal for the next round tie with Celtic.

McIntyre admitted, "That's no secret, there was a lot of money riding on the game and we never got through so it will definitely have some sort of effect.

"However, the board are fully aware of what areas I think we could do with strengthening.

"They're working extremely hard to make funds available, which they deserve great credit for because this has been a tough season financially for everyone, not just Dunfermline, when you look at crowds and at Scottish football in general."

Kerr's arrival helped spark an immediate upturn in fortunes with the win at Kilmarnock and McIntyre said, "I would say a big thanks to the board for getting a player of Mark's quality.

"He will be a key signing and brings composure and energy to the team. He gets about a pitch, has vast experience, is at a good age and is also a good boy with a great attitude."

Unfortunately all that good work was undone on Tuesday when they missed the chance to climb off the bottom of the table after a 3-1 defeat at Motherwell.

Inconsistency is threatening to sink those survival hopes and the boss said, "There's a reason why we're bottom of the league and it's our consistency levels.

"When you come off a result like Saturday's at Kilmarnock, it's an ideal opportunity to try and get another and with the sending off you hope your team will go and do that.

"But possession of the ball was poor from us, we went far too long too many times, we didn't get it side-to-side or create good opportunities to get crosses into the box.

"Equally, our delivery at times was poor."

Looking ahead to the Aberdeen match, the boss is hoping for a far better ending after the Pars chucked away a 3-1 lead to draw the last match between the sides at East End in November.

He said, "We contrived to throw the game away against Aberdeen at East End Park which was really disappointing. Pittodrie is a difficult place to go and we've got bad memories of our first visit up there this season so it's a chance to banish that."

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