RHYS BREEN is optimistic "spirits and tempos will be at max" when Athletic open their Championship campaign this weekend.

The 24-year-old has said that he and his team-mates need to make sure there is a belief when they head to Livingston on Saturday following a disappointing Premier Sports Cup campaign.

After opening their section with a 3-0 win at The Spartans, who went on to top Group E, three successive losses to Forfar Athletic, Livi and Cove Rangers saw their hopes of progressing to the last 16 disintegrate.

They'll head back to West Lothian for the second time in three weeks, which sandwiched home defeats by League Two Forfar and League One Cove, and ahead of the latter, Breen acknowledged: "The results haven’t played our way.

Dunfermline Press:

"We know that, and obviously we are not happy about that, but we will probably learn a lot more from that going into the season than beating teams four or five nil.

"It hurts a wee bit but we need to make sure the positivity is there. No doubt when we come to play Livingston the spirits and tempos will be at max.

"We know how hard a league it is - we were in it last season. With injuries it didn’t work out our way, but this season there is no doubt that we are going to be hitting the ground running.

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"The way the boys have come back fit for pre-season, everybody has come back with a good head on their shoulders and the boys will be ready for the game against Livingston."

Breen said that there different facets that they are trying to implement in their game, explaining: "We want to be different all over the pitch.

"We want to play out from the back, do different things within the pitch, and the biggest one is just to win the ball back, to make sure that we have that energy within the team and make sure if we do make the mistake, we are getting it back after a couple of seconds.

"We have new players in and some of the things we want to do this season is a bit different from last season.

"When we are in training we are working on some new things to do for new people.

"It is taking its time but no doubt, even in training, it shows that when it does work we do get chances that we should be taking.

"It is one of those things. If we get work on it, we will definitely get the benefit of it."