PARS boss James McPake says "there's a lot of work to do" ahead of their return to the Championship following Tuesday night's Viaplay Cup success at Albion Rovers.

Josh Edwards' first half strike, followed by late efforts from Craig Wighton, and teenager Taylor Sutherland, gave his side a 3-0 win in their final match in Group F.

Victory over the Wee Rovers, managed by former Athletic player, coach and assistant boss, Sandy Clark, moved them top of the section on eight points from their four matches.

Qualification, however, is out of their hands, and they will know this weekend whether they will reach the knockout stages.

Dunfermline Press: Craig Wighton headed in Dunfermline's second goal on Tuesday night.Craig Wighton headed in Dunfermline's second goal on Tuesday night. (Image: Craig Brown.)

Last night (Wednesday), Kilmarnock and Raith Rovers drew 2-2 at Rugby Park, with Rovers collecting a bonus point in the penalty shoot-out, to leave them second and third in the group respectively.

However, both teams have one more match to play - Kilmarnock go to Albion, and Raith travel to Annan - and are one and two points behind Dunfermline respectively, meaning three points for each on Saturday would knock McPake's side down to third and out of the competition.

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Each group winner, and the best three runners-up, will advance and, whilst the Pars manager said it was "job done" at Cliftonhill, he expects to see more from his side when Airdrieonians visit next Saturday (August 5) for the curtain-raiser on their Championship return.

"Definitely, 100 per cent," McPake replied when asked if there were things to work on.

"There's a lot of work to do on the back of that. Like I said through the week, we've got this thing of not starting quick, but it wasn't that tonight.

"We made it harder than we had hoped. They've done quite well (Albion) against Raith Rovers, they went and beat Annan, and Sandy's got them playing pretty well on a good pitch. Fair play to Albion Rovers, credit to them, but we weren't good enough.

"It's nothing that I didn't get that I wasn't expecting, but you can't just approach games in a manner and think that you've got a divine right to win it. You've not.

"We got exactly what we thought we would get from Albion Rovers. Sandy Clark's an experienced coach, manager, so they were well set up, and they've got some decent players.

"But, if you don't approach the game properly, which we didn't do for a large spell of that game - I think you saw the difference when Kyle Benedictus came on, Joe Chalmers came on.

"Great for Taylor as well, young Andrew (Tod) was excellent, but it's not about what I expected or what I didn't. I expect us to perform at a consistency, and to a level, that you get when you wear the Dunfermline strip.

"For a while in that game, we didn't do that."

Dunfermline Press: Taylor Sutherland (right) celebrates after scoring Dunfermline's third.Taylor Sutherland (right) celebrates after scoring Dunfermline's third. (Image: Craig Brown.)

McPake continued: "We lacked a bit of leadership in the first half, in terms of when things weren't going right. You saw the difference, as I said, when Benedictus and Chalmers came on. They can move people about.

"You heard more from Benedictus I think in the 42 minutes he was on than you heard from anyone else. We've got to have leaders on the pitch. We've got to have people moving people about.

"It's not about when things aren't going right that you're having a go at somebody. You're not falling out with them. There's just standards or demands. They do it in training but, tonight, they didn't do that."

When asked if he could turn it into a positive, by knowing what they have to improve on before the league starts, McPake replied: "No. You don’t turn things like that into a positive.

"You work your way through them and you get better at them. We have the time, but they will need to be better."

The manager noted that Sam Fisher went off early in the second half with a stomach bug, and said Michael O'Halloran should be in contention to play Airdrie, after not being risked in Coatbridge.

He also praised teenagers and Tod and Sutherland, but had sympathy for defenders, Liam Hoggan and Miller Fenton, not appearing off the bench.

"I'm disappointed tonight when you've got a Liam Hoggan, Miller Fenton on the bench, and it's just a bit of, in my opinion, lack of leadership, in terms of Sam Fisher has come off at minute after half-time, instead of putting his hand up at half-time," he said.

"It's wee things like that that have annoyed me tonight.

"It was a stomach bug or something like that, so put your hand up at half time. It then maybe allows late in the game Liam Hoggan, to get another ten or fifteen minutes or Miller, because we have that one stoppage with two subs remaining. There was a lot went wrong tonight."

Midfielder Chalmers, who appeared early in the second half, commented: "In the end it's job done.

"We came here to get the win, and try and score a few goals to give ourselves a chance to get through to the next round.

"Obviously, the performance could've been better, and we could've played better, but we got there in the end. That's all we could do.

"Coming here, it was a good surface tonight, so we wanted to put on a performance, and build on what we work on in training. We probably worked the ball into good areas, and then it was just the final ball, over the course of the game, just probably wasn't there. It was either overhit, or the delivery into the box wasn't quite there, so that's something we'll need to work on.

"At least we've got a bit of time now before the first league game. We can look at stuff, work on it, and hopefully put it right come the Airdrie game."

Rovers boss Clark, who had a spell on the coaching staff at East End during Jimmy Calderwood's tenure as manager, before working as assistant to Allan Johnston, helping Dunfermline to win League One in 2016, said: "Was it a 3-0 game? Maybe not.

"2-0, 1-0, might've been a fairer reflection, but no complaints about the winners, Dunfermline. A wee step above us to be fair, and they showed it with the quality of the goals."