Dunfermline begin life after Peter Grant with huge clash against Morton

Dunfermline Athletic begin life after Peter Grant with a key bottom-of-the-table clash with Morton at East End Park today as the Fife outfit go in search of their first win of the cinch Championship campaign.

Dunfermline need results to turn for them in the Championship.

Grant was dismissed following last weekend’s 4-2 defeat by Arbroath at Gayfield. He left the Pars at the foot of the league, on seven points from 12 matches, and the club – whose chairman Ross McArthur has decided to stand down at the end of the season – is facing up to the prospect of a relegation battle rather than pushing for promotion, which was the aim at the start of the season.

Dunfermline’s German owners are not expected to rush the appointment of Grant’s successor, with the team being taken by co-assistant managers Greg Shields and Steven Whittaker. The duo summoned the players for clear-the-air talks in a bid to end a miserable run of form, knowing that a win over Morton will allow them to leapfrog the Greenock outfit, who are currently in ninth place and have themselves only won once in the division all season.

“We need to be different because we haven’t had results,” said Shields, who is in the running for the job. “We are bottom of the league. There have to be changes. There has to be a different style.”

Elsewhere, league leaders Kilmarnock – whose striker Oli Shaw was named player of the month for October – welcome Partick Thistle to Rugby Park, while second-placed Inverness Caledonian Thistle are at Ayr United.

Hamilton Accies take on Arbroath at FOYS Stadium and Queen of the South and Raith Rovers meet at Palmerston Park.