RAY McKINNON: READY FOR DERBY DAY

Falkirk manager, Ray McKinnon has been busy preparing his side for Saturday’s trip to East End Park. The Bairns boss has witnessed his side put in much improved performances in recent weeks against league leaders Ross County and Ayr United.

Ahead of tomorrow’s trip across the Kincardine Bridge, McKinnon insists he is looking for his side to go full on attack for the win.

He said: “We need them to go to East End Park and play the way they have been in recent weeks, if the players do that then we’ll be competitive in the game. Dunfermline have a lot of tidy players across the park who will look to cause us problems, but this is a game that I really hope we can go out and try to win.

“It would give everyone a huge lift, it’s a derby game and we need to go in to the match with the belief to get a result. We want to go with full blooded attack and come back to Falkirk with three points.”

The Falkirk manager has long spoken about his disappointment in his side’s performance when the Pars visited The Falkirk Stadium at the start of last month. It’s a match which clearly still frustrates McKinnon who will have his side well drilled ahead of Saturday’s encounter.

He said: “Without being over critical we weren’t great that day, I don’t think Dunfermline were too far ahead of us, but we weren’t great and that really frustrated me.

“We need to be more aggressive and competitive. Saturday is a completely different game; we need to go there and show what we have in the last two games against Ayr and Ross County because I felt we deserved to take at least four points out of the two games.

“The attitude has been fantastic; the mentality has been good and everything they’ve done in the last two games has been great so we’ll take a lot of confidence from that.”

McKinnon will go into Saturday’s match without Club Captain, Aaron Muirhead who remains sidelined with an ankle injury. Paul Paton returns to the matchday squad having missed last Saturday’s defeat to Ayr United through injury.

There was slightly more positive news for Muirhead, though, with the Falkirk boss confirming that he expects to have the 28-year-old back in the next four to six weeks.

He commented: “The first diagnosis for Aaron was that he had a broken ankle and a second scan has revealed it might have been an old fracture.

“The timescale looks like he will be out for around four to six weeks. I have got to commend him for playing through the last ten minutes of the match regardless of what the injury was. He went in a 50-50 tackle too so fair play to him. It would have been really backs to the wall if he hadn’t have stayed on.”

Get behind Ray McKinnon and his side at East End Park tomorrow. Full matchday information, including details on how you can buy tickets on the day, can be found HERE.