EXPERIENCED midfielder Joe Chalmers admits that there will be pressure on Dunfermline to deliver a positive result when they entertain Airdrieonians on Saturday.
The Championship's bottom two go head-to-head at KDM Group East End Park, with James McPake's side sitting one place and four points above their opponents.
A third home league win of the season for the Pars would further extend their advantage over the Diamonds, who are yet to win on the road, and could haul them out of the relegation play-off spot depending on how Greenock Morton, two points and one place above, fare at Raith Rovers.
Chalmers, who played the full 90 minutes of Athletic's SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-final win over Alloa Athletic on Tuesday, believes that result, and performance, can give them an additional boost in belief going into the game - even if he acknowledges the need to be more clinical in front of goal.
"I think obviously with the way the season's panned out so far, obviously I think any positive we can take, we have to take it, and use it and build on it," he said.
"It's a clean sheet, it's a win, so we've got to take the positives, but, again, it's going to be a completely different game on Saturday.
"Obviously, we know Airdrie well, it's going to be a difficult game, and there'll obviously be a lot of pressure on, so we need to step up and find another level again.
"You could probably look back over a lot of games this season with how tight they are.
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"It's not like we're losing games 2-0, 3-0, and we're well beaten. The games are close and we're either missing our chances, and other teams are taking their one chance that they get that we're giving up, so, we're getting punished for it.
"We obviously need to start punishing other teams for that, but I've got a bit of confidence in the boys. We're working hard on it in training every day to make it better, and we just need to keep knocking at the door, keep knocking at the door and then, obviously, once a couple go in, hopefully the confidence gets up and then we start taking them more often.
"The boys are in there frustrated that they're not taking the chances, so everybody's holding their hands up, but we're a team.
"We'll stick by each other and we'll keep pushing each other to hopefully get it better."
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