SEAN CRIGHTON took some solace from a second half reaction in his team, after a first-half display in Dunfermline he deemed “too passive”.
Second half changes to personnel and formation saw some improvements in the display, but not enough to take something back from the trip into Fife.
The Spiders went close to conceding after just 90 seconds – then did so after seven minutes when Josh Cooper slammed in the opening goal.
A wicked deflection sent Jack Wills the wrong way for the second and Queen’s Park couldn’t overturn the home side’s advantage despite a series of corners and goalmouth scrambles in the Pars’ penalty area in the second half.
The Spiders boss wants a return to the levels he witnessed in last week’s win against Morton, and warned against a repeat performance of the first half at KDM Group East End Park when the Spiders host Ayr United, live on BBC Scotland, on Friday night.
The first-team manager said: “I thought we were poor first half, better second half but it’s easier to go and play and be brave when you’re 2-0 down.
“We’ve had that chat about being so passive in the first half. It’s not been like us over the past two weeks when we’ve been making contact with people and been more aggressive, so I’m really disappointed in the first-half and I had to change something.
“I think I got a reaction, and that was important.
“Within the first seven minutes our goalkeeper has to make three saves because we’re so passive in the middle areas of the pitch – and not just the midfield.
“We were too loose and didn’t secure the ball and that put us on the back foot. You need to secure the ball in this division because good players here will hurt you.
“The more the first half went on our goalkeeper saved us a bit and in the second half we had to get us back into the game and we had more territory and more corners and we started to put Dunfermline under some pressure because I felt it was all Dunfermline in the first half.
“I liked our reaction in the second half but by that stage the damage is done and we need to make sure that can’t happen like it did in the first half.
“[At half-time] I’ve not gone in there and torn the shirts off them – I just made basic decisions and changed the shape slightly and it helped us a bit but I didn’t see what I had seen from my team over the past couple of weeks in that first half.
“We need to fix that moving into the Ayr United game next week.
“Last week we had a good performance and were aggressive – everything we didn’t see in the first half – and we need to get back to that for the Ayr United game.
“If we do that we’ll be absolutely fine. If we do what we did in the first half, in terms of being passive, we won’t be.”
