ATHLETIC boss James McPake is confident that his players can haul themselves up the Championship table after a seventh loss of the season on Saturday.

Following a thrilling 3-0 win over title-chasing Livingston last midweek, the Pars were beaten by Partick Thistle at KDM Group East End Park at the weekend thanks to a second half goal from their former player, Scott Robinson.

The loss leaves Dunfermline still sitting second bottom of the standings, four points above Airdrieonians, and one behind eighth-placed Greenock Morton, who were thrashed 6-0 by leaders Falkirk.

McPake's side go to Hampden to play fifth-top Queen's Park still searching for a first away league victory of the season, but he is confident that the squad he has will begin to produce a consistent run of results to improve their position - especially if they can replicate their showing against Livingston.

Dunfermline Press:

"Of course I'm confident, yeah," he told Press Sport.

"I work with these players every day. They've worked well this week, we'll go down to Hampden and, if we perform, we know we can go there and get a good result.

"I think this league is always the same. It's a tough league and I don't know if there's ever been a team in it, or any time in this league where teams can take points off each other."

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When asked if he was looking for a consistency in performance that they displayed against Livi, McPake continued: "Yeah, that's certainly what we need.

"We need to be winning games of football and putting points on the board, and certainly Queen's Park, again, obviously a tough team that we've obviously lost to already this season.

"We know when we're at our level, or if we're playing the way we can play, we're as good as any team and we can cause any team problems, but Queen's Park will be saying the exact same about us. It is a difficult game.

"The game here, I thought we were poor for a spell in the game, and then we finished really strong, but we need to go down there and be positive from the start and go down and perform at the levels we can.

"In terms of performance, against Livingston, that's what we know this group is capable of. We need to produce it more often and we need to take care of other things in the game, like the set plays, and in the tight games, we need to find ways to win."