Dunfermline rounded off an enjoyable week’s work with a 2-0 win over Ayr United on Saturday that lifted them to fifth in the Championship table.
Goals five minutes apart just before the break from Chris Hamilton and Chris Kane earned the Pars an advantage they seldom looked like relinquishing.
It ensured a haul of seven points from three games in eight days and relieves the pressure on both under-fire manager James McPake and his previously struggling side.
Courier Sport looks at the significance of a richly-deserved victory against Scott Brown’s visitors.
Revival continues
An unbeaten run of four matches is a modest one.
But when it has been preceded by a sequence of nine games without a victory then it will always prove significant.
McPake has acknowledged his players desperately needed to get the ‘monkey of their bacsk’ by winning a game.
Having done that last Friday with an impressive 3-1 success against Partick, they have gone on to back it up.
A draw away in the Highlands against Inverness Caley Thistle is always a satisfactory result.
And to then comfortably sweep aside an Ayr United team that had themselves beaten Partick 4-3 in midweek improves the mood still further.
The focus now turns to extending that resurgence on Tuesday against Airdrie.
The sight of skipper Kyle Benedictus returning to the squad after a third serious injury of the season highlighted how things appear to be improving for the Fifers.
Matty Todd, who had played just six times in the league before his latest comeback against Thistle, has been a key performer in the last three games.
Likewise, Alex Jakubiak brings experience, energy and pace to the team in attack, where the addition of Chris Kane has been vital.
With others set to get off the treatment table to further strengthen McPake’s options in the coming weeks, there is reason for optimism again.
Twists and turns ahead in Championship
McPake insists he pays little attention to the standings in the Championship until the home straight, such is the madcap nature of the results and positional movements from week to week.
The Pars have gone from ninth to seventh, to sixth without even playing, back to eighth and now to fifth in the space of just eight days.
Despite being suddenly within touching distance of a promotion play-off place, they are also still incredibly close to the relegation one.
Only two points separates the Fifers in fifth from Inverness in ninth, with another three teams in between
The fact so many sides are bunched together in the bottom half of the table looks certain to make the closing quarter a rollercoaster one.
However, if a team can piece together a run of form then they could conceivably haul themselves out of trouble and start thinking about looking up instead of down.
Home comforts
East End Park has not been a happy place for Dunfermline this season.
Prior to Saturday’s victory over Ayr, the Pars had won just three of their 12 home games in the league.
The recent 5-0 hammering from Morton and the dismal 3-0 defeat from Queen’s Park that followed it resulted in a toxic atmosphere at the full-time whistle.
The anger and unhappiness amongst the supporters was clear.
Add in a 3-0 Scottish Cup defeat on home soil to rivals Raith Rovers, who have plundered two further derby triumphs down Halbeath Road this term, and it has not been a happy hunting ground for McPake’s side.
You had to go back three months, to November 28, for Dunfermline’s last home win.
And that 3-0 victory over Arbroath was their only success in a series of ten outings in their own stadium.
Now wonder, then, McPake had urged his side ahead of kick-off to give their fans something to get behind as early as possible against Ayr.
And it worked. They threatened after two minutes, and again three minutes later before Chris Hamilton clipped the crossbar with a header from the resulting corner.
It was a dominant first-half and the fans responded.
The relationship between team and supporters is forever a symbiotic one and Dunfermline got it just right on Saturday.
Case for the defence
Dunfermline’s injury-afflicted campaign has impacted their defence probably more than any other area of the team.
Of late, the back three that started the season – Kyle Benedictus, Sam Fisher and Rhys Breen – have all been unavailable.
Aaron Comrie was also sidelined through injury before making his comeback – only to be ruled out until next term.
Even goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet missed the opening two months of the season.
Midfielders have been pressed into action in defence, robbing the heart of the team of their services, and new players have come in without having any time to settle.
It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that Saturday’s victory over Ayr was only the fifth time this term that the Fifers have kept a clean sheet in the league.
And it is the first time since last summer they have enjoyed back-to-back shut-outs.
A magnificent block on the line from substitute Joe Chalmers deep into stoppage time against the Honest Men kept the Dunfermline goal intact and was important.
It would not have made any difference to the destiny of the three points but after Tuesday’s stalemate against Inverness it hints at a new-found resilience.
New signings Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Miles Welch-Hayes were impressive against Ayr, as were goal-scorer Chris Hamilton and dependable left-back Josh Edwards.
A solid rearguard is an important foundation for any team.
And it is no surprise that, after leaking an average of two goals per game in their winless streak, Dunfermline’s upturn in fortunes has come on the back of conceding just two goals in four matches.
