‘A great advert for Fife’ – Stevie Crawford relishes play-off draw with Raith

Stevie Crawford claimed Dunfermline’s goalless Scottish Premiership play-off draw with Raith Rovers was “a great advert for Fife”.

The Pars had a series of attempts on goal in the quarter-final encounter at East End Park but when they did hit the target Kirkcaldy keeper Jamie MacDonald was equal to the task.

John McGlynn’s side came back into the first-leg tie in a more even second half but neither Fife side could get the breakthrough.

The teams will meet up again on Saturday at Stark’s Park for the right to play Championship runners-up Dundee over two legs in the semi-final, with the 11th-placed Premiership side waiting for the winners.

Pars boss Crawford said: “Albeit it was 0-0, it was a great advert for Fife.

“Not just ourselves, Raith Rovers showed what it meant to them tonight and my players were the same.

“I thought it was a good battle and Saturday will be no different.

“We know the job in hand, we know what we need to do to go through and play Dundee.

“We need to win the game, it is how we prepare for it and the performance tonight gave me great hope.”

Crawford was left rueing missed opportunities but was pleased with his side’s performance.

He said: “We had the better chances in the game and other than not winning the game there was a lot of positives to take from tonight, like some of our creative play and movement.

“As I say, other than scoring a goal tonight, there was a lot of good things.

“You want to win games of football and to win games of football you have to score goals.

“But I think we were well into double figures in efforts on goal. Jamie MacDonald pulled off a couple of great saves but as I say, application-wise, their focus was excellent.”

Rovers boss John McGlynn insists there is no pressure on his side ahead of the return game.

He said: “We live to fight another day, Saturday can’t come quick enough.

“But there is not any pressure on us. The tie is very evenly poised, both teams have a great chance of getting through.

“We have exceeded expectation levels from ourselves. Of course as the season goes on your expectations go up and we want to get to the Premiership as much as Dunfermline and Dundee, make no mistake about that.

“But the pressure is not on us. I don’t feel any pressure.”