Dunfermline: James McPake praises attackers and set piece play

The Pars manager handed Mebude his first league start, in his fourth appearance since signing for the club, against the Lions and he completed an hour of the 3-0 victory.

His direct running at defenders was one of many bright spots on a good evening for Dunfermline, and McPake was keen to highlight the impact of his stars in the final third of the pitch.

"Great," was his response when asked about Mebude's display.

"I thought he was excellent when he came on on Saturday (at Falkirk), a real threat, and worries centre-backs. Very similar obviously to what we faced on Saturday, with Calvin Miller and Ethan Ross, where when they get the ball, they're just very direct, they're looking to get shots away, get crosses. Dapo's very similar.

"Lewis (McCann) is obviously a different profile. I thought he was brilliant tonight, he really was.

"The full front three that started, with Chris Kane, Lewis and Dapo, and then you change that front three - it becomes Craig Wighton, Matty Todd and Josh Cooper - and the one that's the consistent in it is the older one, and the one that, let's be honest, we needed a performance from as well, in David Wotherspoon. Excellent player.

"When you look at the good performances we've had, maybe minus one or two, but the Raith game, he was outstanding. I think he might have played 90 minutes that night, 90 minutes tonight again, running with people half his age nearly, so we need to get David at that level and, when we've got him at that level, he's such a calming player.

David Wotherspoon, celebrating with Kyle Benedictus, had a key role in Dunfermline's win. (Image: Craig Brown.)

"Set play delivery, puts it on a plate for his team-mates, but I think you can tell I'm just delighted for the lads tonight."

READ MORE: Late Dunfermline Athletic player Tommy Callaghan 'lit up the dressing room'

Set piece improvement

Wotherspoon in particularly had a key role in taming the Lions, providing assists from corners for both Kyle Benedictus and Chris Kane to score in the second half.

The former St Johnstone star also set up McCann for his goal against the Bairns at the weekend, with a free-kick from deep into the box, and McPake has been pleased with what he viewed as improvements from his men at attacking set pieces.

"I think even on Saturday we were a lot better from set plays. Lewis scored the goal from that and, let's be honest, we should have had one or two more from set plays," he continued.

READ MORE: Skipper wants Livi rout to 'be the start' of turn in form

"Again, it's easy to say we should have, they're not always guaranteed, but we were in the right areas so to speak. It's something we've been working on a lot but, also on top of that, it helps when you're getting your captain back, when you're getting a settled back four.

"When I say settled, Sam Young's been playing centre-back with someone, so at least he's in. He was excellent again tonight, great on Saturday in terms of what he had to do, for 18 years old, going in and playing in that fixture away from home. Great, he came through that, and I thought he was brilliant tonight again.

"But, anyway getting that in, getting Kieran Ngwenya back, has been massive as well because we've got different threats from set plays, Aaron can go in, Kieran can go in and obviously Bene gets that.

Kieran Ngwenya on the ball. (Image: Craig Brown.)

"But delivery was good, they're going and attacking it, and great we got two goals from it, but as pleasing because you said it, how threatening they can be from set plays.

"We've seen that in the first two games we played them in the start of the season (and we were punished in those games.

"They've got long throws and I'm not saying anything against that because I've seen long throws in an Edinburgh derby at the weekend punishing a team.

READ MORE: Here's what we learned from Athletic's win over Livingston

"We've done it over the period with Josh Edwards, now with Lewis McCann, and Livingston use it with (Michael) Nottingham and with (Robbie) Muirhead, so they've got two different ones that you're working on.

"So, when you see them going in, that was good, because the game was done, maybe with 10 minutes to go, but apart from the clean sheet and the desire at one point late on and again to be expected, five of them running back, they're defending their box.

"Tobi was excellent again, so a good performance, a good night against a very good team again. I don't think I've said that enough. They were the only team up until tonight that were unbeaten, and have a lot of players with Premiership experience over three or four seasons, not just maybe 10, 15 games.

"Livingston, that's just a bump in the road for them in my opinion. I've seen a lot of them, but tonight I think anyone, if we performed like that and the players were like that, then we were always going to give them a hard game tonight, so just delighted for them."