JOHN POTTER admitted that there were “mixed emotions” after playing a part in condemning Dunfermline to relegation.

But the current Queen’s Park coach is adamant that his old club will bounce back from Saturday’s crushing disappointment and return to the Championship, having drawn on past experience.

Potter, 42, has been working with the Glasgow side since January, having been brought in to help following the departure of head coach Laurie Ellis.

He is well-known to Spiders’ chief executive Leann Dempster, following their respective spells with Hibernian, where Potter worked as assistant to another former Par, Jack Ross, until his sacking in December.

The ambitious Glasgow side announced in March that Owen Coyle, who played alongside Potter during the latter’s first spell at East End as a player, would take over in June, although he was in the dugout for both legs of the Championship play-off semi-final.

Under the management of Jim Jefferies, Dunfermline-born Potter coached the club’s under-20s side and the first team, taking over as head coach following Jefferies’ departure in December 2014.

Although he was replaced by Allan Johnston the following summer, Potter remained a popular member of the club’s coaching staff until the summer of 2018, when he accepted an offer from Ross to join him at Sunderland.

Potter, who still lives in the town, was asked if there were mixed emotions after Simon Murray’s winner sent Dunfermline to League One for the first time in six years, and he admitted: “It is.

“My family were in the Dunfermline end today, my sons and stuff, so, look, it’s disappointing for the club.

“But I was here before when the club were in a far worse state; they went into administration (in 2013), didn’t think they were going to be there.

“Other people came and saved the club, slowly built it back up, and got it into the top end of the Championship.

“Yes, they’ve had a bad year, but it happens. It’s disappointing but it’s a big club, it’s a good club, and I have no doubt that it will be back up to the Championship trying to push on again.”

Airdrieonians stand between Queen’s Park and promotion, and he added: “It is a big opportunity for this club, and the players at this club, to get the club into the Championship.”