Pars boss James McPake praises midfielder Matty Todd

The 22-year-old netted his second goal of the campaign during the defeat to Partick Thistle at the weekend, seven days on from scoring his first in a victory at Airdrieonians.

Having come off the bench to score what proved to be the decisive strike against the Diamonds, Todd was in the starting line-up against the Jags for his eighth appearance of a campaign that saw him miss Dunfermline's first 10 Championship games after suffering an ankle injury that required surgery.

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He completed his first 90 minutes in the league this term against Thistle and his manager has been delighted with the progress he has made.

"Matty's always going to be an important player in our team, and just the way he does play. He's different to other players in that position. He's a different option," McPake told Press Sport.

"With the way Matty plays the game, I believe he's now at a level close to where he was last year in terms of his fitness. It's taken him a little while, but that game on Saturday, to get all the way through that and keep running and keep working like he did, was great.

"His stats from that game were really impressive as well, and he had a few other chances too, so he's starting to get chances in the game.

"We're starting to see what we saw from Matty last year, in terms of the runs into the box, the positions he's taking up, so that's the real positive for us."

James McPake believes Matty Todd is close to his fitness levels of last season. (Image: Craig Brown.)

A sickness bug through the club saw training last Thursday cancelled as a precaution, but McPake reported that "people are getting better", but that "we'll still protect them and take it easy with certain ones".

He also provided an update on Sam Fisher, who was substituted after a clash with Partick's Harry Milne, ahead of this Saturday's trip to Arbroath.

"He's ok. It was a sore one he took. There was nothing at all that the Partick player could've done, but he's doing ok, and we'll just keep an eye on him as the week goes on," McPake continued.

"There was a lot in the game. Having watched it back a couple of times as well, a lot of good stuff. There's certainly things we can do better as a team. Obviously, Partick's two shots on target resulted in two goals, and they were both from set plays, so we know that. We knew that live at the game, everyone knew that, but there was a lot of good stuff in the game.

"There was a lot of decent play, and ultimately it's about three points, but performances as are important as well.

"We need to start picking points up as well so that's what we'll look to try and do going up to Arbroath on Saturday."

McPake added that Kane Ritchie-Hosler, who dislocated his shoulder when the Pars met the Lichties at KDM Group East End Park last month, has had surgery and has travelled home to spend Christmas with his family.

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