Interview: Jim McIntyre, Dunfermline manager

TEATIME last Saturday. The results came in, and the debate started up again around the grounds. Dunfermline had lost, Hibernian had won, so that was it, according to some.

Relegation battle over.

Others were not so sure. Jim McIntyre’s team had been written off time after time, so why should a three-point deficit be decisive?

Remember the showdown between the two bottom clubs in January? It had the atmosphere of a cup match, both teams played as if it were a cup match, and when Hibs won 3-2, it was easy to conclude that Dunfermline had suffered a knockout blow.

Not so. McIntyre declared then that his team would come off the ropes, and so they did, winning 3-0 at Kilmarnock in their next league game.

More than a month later, they are still hanging on. They have that three-point gap to deal with, and are nine goals worse off than Hibs, who have a game in hand. But it is still by no means settled, and, with the championship having turned into a one-horse race, there is a growing grim fascination throughout the game with this battle at the bottom.

Hibs have a far bigger budget, one which has allowed their manager, Pat Fenlon, to recruit the bulk of a new team since he took over a few months back. They are strong favourites to escape the drop, partly because of that financial strength, and partly because of a widely held presumption that they cannot possibly go on playing as badly as they have been doing.

Dunfermline, according to that analysis, are plucky underdogs who have done well to stay in the fight for as long as this. They have determination and character all right, but lack the class to pick up the necessary points.

McIntyre, unsurprisingly, sees things differently. He does not want his team to accept the gallant-losers label. Instead, he depicts them as underachievers: a team who could and should have won more games by now, and who can haul themselves to safety if they play to their potential. “We’ve had ample opportunities to pick up more points and climb up the table, but we’re still in there fighting,” he says. “And the players will keep battling on.

“I’m not one to make excuses. We are where we are because of results. We’ve lacked a cutting edge at both ends of the field – up front where we’ve not taken as many chances as we should have, and at the back where we’ve let in some goals that we shouldn’t have done.

“But we’re still in there battling. Of course I’d hoped we would have more points by now, and I’d never have foreseen that at this stage of the season we’d still be looking for our first home win. We’ve had ample opportunities to win three or four games at home, but we’ve just not been clinical enough when the chances have come our way.”

They have another opportunity today, but it’s a tough one, as Motherwell visit East End Park intent on keeping up the chase for second place. In fact, Dunfermline’s last few fixtures have been tough, with McIntyre’s side having played both halves of the Old Firm last month.

They lost both those games, but at least their 2-0 defeat at Celtic Park compared favourably with the 5-0 thrashing by the champions-elect which Hibs had suffered at Easter Road three days earlier. And at least this month, with matches against St Mirren, Dundee United and Hearts to follow before the split, they are coming into a run of fixtures which look more winnable.

“I think we have a chance of winning any game we go into, but obviously you’ve got a better chance of winning against the non-Old Firm teams,” is McIntyre’s take on the fixture list.

“Having said that though, we’ve just played Rangers and Celtic in the last few weeks, we’ve still got some difficult games coming up. Of our next four opponents, three of the teams are in the top six, and St Mirren have been playing some good football this season as well. So we’re going to be playing against some very good sides. But it’s absolutely imperative that we don’t get to the split with a mountain to climb.”

Were it not for a surprisingly good start to the season, in which they drew their first two games then won the next two, Dunfermline would already have that mountain to climb. In the six months since acquiring those early eight points, they have won just 11 more.

In such circumstances, a spirit of stoicism is called for, and McIntyre has that in spades. As a player he came into his own when the pressure was on, notably in cup matches. He scored the semi-final winner against Dundee United which took Kilmarnock to the Scottish Cup final in 1997, then, almost a decade later, did the same against Hibs from the penalty spot, impudently dinking the ball into the net.

That latter goal has gone down as a cherished moment in Dunfermline’s history, and in McIntyre’s playing career, but an invitation to indulge in nostalgia is politely declined. “I’ve done so many interviews and talked so much about that goal,” he says. “Yes, it was a great moment, but it’s not about me. It’s about the players.”

At 39, McIntyre could still be a player himself – reduced to cameo roles, perhaps, but still with a part to play in stabilising the side. Yet, after initially taking charge at East End Park in a dual role, he decided it was necessary to concentrate on management, and although he misses playing, he is sure he made the right decision.

“There’s no doubt that when you retire, you do miss playing. I love being a manager, but it’s a poor second to playing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great job, but it doesn’t compare to being out there on the field.

“But it’s too difficult to play and be a manager. I was a player/manager when I started, then after a while I made a conscious decision to concentrate on being a manager. If you’re doing both jobs there’s the fact that you don’t rest properly. You’re asking your body to put up with a lot, and the older you get the more wee strains you pick up. So I thought it was more beneficial to the club if I gave up playing and stuck to being the manager.

“I had already had my B and youth licences when I was asked to take charge of the side at first. I never thought for a minute that it would become longer term. I thought I was just babysitting when I first got the job, just taking charge for a couple of games until an experienced manager was appointed.”

Now, having learned on the job for a while, he is that experienced manager. Ask him what is the biggest lesson in his time in charge, and the answer could come from someone who has been around far longer. “Never get too high when things are going your way, and never get too down when they aren’t,” he says.

It is a maxim which stood him in good stead back in January when his team lost that match to Hibs. No matter how big a build-up there had been, or how much hope the team had invested in the game, once it was lost he was able to reassure them: three points had been lost, but no more. And it worked.

“The boys showed a good reaction to that 3-2 result,” he says with characteristic understatement. “I don’t think we deserved to lose that match, because we created our fair share of chances, but it was all about taking those chances and we didn’t take enough of them.”

To outsiders, the fight between Dunfermline and Hibs may look like an uneven battle, but McIntyre knows there is no time for self-pity. Far from resenting the greater resources which Fenlon has enjoyed, he prefers to count his own blessings. Chief among them is the club’s board of directors, who gave him the chance to take over as manager at the end of 2007, and who have backed him ever since.

“I certainly don’t envy him,” he says of Fenlon. “My board have been fantastic in letting me sign four players during the transfer window. It’s just unfortunate that they have picked up injuries. As I said, I’m not one to make excuses, and we have ourselves to blame for our position in the table, but we have had an awful lot of injuries.

“You can see the benefit of having a strong board if you look at the case of Steven Pressley at Falkirk. Some of the fans were calling for his head last season, but the board stuck with him and look what a good job he’s doing this season.

“It’s not exactly the same here, and nobody’s been calling for my head, but we have had a couple of sticky patches. But the board have stuck with me, and their support has been great. I think they knew with the budget I had that it was going to be a difficult season.”

That season became even more difficult this week when Dunfermline announced that they had been unable to pay their players’ salaries in full. They paid 60 per cent of the money on time, will be able to pay half of the balance once today’s game is out of the way, and are confident of paying the other half within ten days. “We had a meeting on Thursday, and the chief executive Bill Hodgins made it crystal clear that this is a short-term problem,” is McIntyre’s assessment of the issue.

The cash-flow crisis was precipitated by Rangers’ failure to pay ticket revenues of £84,000, but smaller than average attendances at East End Park have also put pressure on the club’s budget. In such circumstances there are many in football who would respond by tugging at supporters’ heartstrings and urging them to dig deep to help their club.

Of course McIntyre would love to see lengthy queues at the turnstiles this afternoon and in subsequent weeks, but it is a measure of the man’s decency, and his refusal to indulge in selfishness, that he also shows an acute awareness that monetary difficulties are currently felt well beyond football.

“Attendances are not only Dunfermline’s problem, it’s across the country in football, and it’s because of the financial mess that the country as a whole is in. If you have to make savings, going to the football is one of the things you can miss out,” he says.

“So of course I hope the fans come out in numbers to support the team over the coming weeks, but I understand how hard it is for some people to afford it.”