STEVEN LAWLESS has praised Athletic’s playing philosophy as they battle to avoid the drop and believes it can bring the results they need.

The 30-year-old, who became John Hughes’ first signing in December, reckons that the Pars have deserved to have picked up more points in recent weeks as the relegation scrap goes to the wire.

Following Wednesday's derby win over Raith Rovers Dunfermline travel to league leaders Kilmarnock this weekend, before hosting Ayr United, who are directly above them in eighth, visit Partick Thistle, and host bottom side, Queen of the South, in their remaining four matches.

Lawless knows that points are the priority, no matter how they’re achieved, but he is convinced that the way the team have been playing can lead them to safety.

“I think you have to take into consideration where we are in the league. It would be quite easy for the manager, and us, to go into our shell, and the manager just telling us to get everything up the park, and try and play for second balls and play in the right areas,” he told Press Sport ahead of the Rovers clash.

“He’s stuck to his philosophy and the boys have bought into it. We’re playing some really good football, and that can be difficult to do when you’re in the position we’re in.

“It’s easy enough to just boom the ball and try and take a bit of pressure off yourself but we’ve stuck to what the manager’s asked us to do and, I think, performance-wise, we’ve been decent for the majority.

“I’ve played in teams that have been in the position of fighting relegation, and it’s easy for players to go into their shells, maybe hide a little bit, just try and look after themselves, and just try and get through the game with getting a point or scraping a win.

“Taking away the Inverness game – because I think a lot of us were off it, myself included – the majority of the games we’ve played in this year, I think we’ve actually been the better team and maybe not been getting the results we should.

“The players are buying into what the manager’s coaching us, and what the coaching staff are putting in on the training pitch, and performance-wise I think we’ve been pretty good.

“It’s maybe just been individual mistakes and stuff like that have been costing us, and that’s not trying to dig anybody out. I think they’d be happy to say that as well, and that’s myself included.

“We’ve been working hard on the training ground and, hopefully, with the style of play we’ve got, and the players we’ve got in the team, we can pick up as many points as possible between now and the end of the season.”

Lawless scored, and missed a penalty, on Dunfermline’s last visit to Rugby Park in February, which ended in a 2-1 defeat, but both matches at East End ended in draws.

“They’re obviously flying high at the top of the table and, just with the games I’ve been involved in, we were quite unlucky,” Lawless said.

“I missed a penalty, which was a good save but I should’ve done better, and then we took the lead, and after that, we got a wee bit slack. We just settled for the 1-0 when we could maybe have pushed forward but, listen, that happens.

“The situation we’re in, that’s natural, especially when they’re pushing for the league, they get that momentum going and it’s difficult.

“Even the Kilmarnock game at home, we were quite unlucky not to win that game. I think Efe’s cracked the bar quite late on, so these are just little things that have been going against us.

“Hopefully we’ve got that experience and I’m confident of going down there and getting a result.”