By Graeme Dey

DUNFERMLINE MANAGER Jim McIntyre is calling for his players to add the one ingredient missing from what has, thus far, been a decent campaign—consistency.

The Pars will replace St Johnstone at the head of the first division if they beat Morton at East End Park tomorrow, but McIntyre has been left frustrated by their inability to string a series of victories together, their last four results reading lose-win-lose-win.

“We’ve got to break that sequence and get on a run,” he admitted yesterday.

“Livingston had a run at the start of the season and you see how beneficial the spell St Johnstone have had recently has been to their league position.

“We’ve yet to put together a run ourselves—so far we’ve been steady without being spectacular— and we need to put that right.

“The boys have done well to get into the situation we are in but we require to add a bit of consistency, especially at home.

“To be fair, we haven’t been far away in a number of matches at East End Park.

“Against Dundee we were the better team until they scored, the St Johnstone game could have gone either way, against Airdrie we dominated—despite being down to ten men for 50 minutes—but just couldn’t score, and against Livingston we hit the bar and missed a great chance.

“So we’re not scratching our heads thinking ‘We can’t win at home.’

“It’s not like that—we just need to make more of the opportunities we get.”

McIntyre is well aware of the consequences of beating Morton but, as he pointed out, there are no prizes for being at the head of affairs in November.

“It would be nice to go top,” he said, “of course it would.

“But at this stage of the season it’s just about winning games.

“Top of the league with 15 games doesn’t mean anything—it’s being there at the end of the season that matters.”

The manager revealed he has already decided which areas of his pool he’ll be seeking to strengthen come the transfer window opening and has been told by the board he can bring in a couple of players.

“We’re short in terms of numbers, I think everyone realises that,” he said.

“There are maybe three or four squads in the league that have greater depth that ours, so we’ll be looking to add two or three bodies.

“We definitely need a striker and maybe a centre-half as well.”

Veteran defender Paul Ritchie isn’t in the frame, though.

Ritchie—who lost his youth coaching job at Dundee following the managerial change there—is training with the Pars.

However, McIntyre made it clear yesterday that he is simply helping out a friend by affording him training facilities.

Dunfermline will be without suspended skipper Scott Wilson and the injured Kevin Harper tomorrow.

They also have doubts over Greg Shields and Scott Muirhead.

However, Graeme Holmes could find a place on the bench after coming through two reserve games and making a faster than expected recovery from back surgery.