BY IAIN COLLIN – @CCP_sport
Michael Moffat believes Dunfermline could virtually kill off Ayr United’s title aspirations with a victory against their promotion rivals this afternoon.
The Pars enjoy a 10-point advantage over their visitors, who slipped to third last week after defeat to on-form Peterhead.
A third triumph in a row against the Honest Men would, Moffat insists, make it extremely difficult for his old team to piece together the kind of run required to bridge the gap as the season counts down.
However, the striker knows the Fifers can forget about everyone else in the division if they can return to the kind of winning run that has allowed them to build up an eight-point lead at the top – with a game in hand – over Peterhead.
He said: “You need to pick up points against the teams round about you. We played Peterhead a couple of weeks ago and that might turn out to be a good point against them because they’re proving hard to beat.
“You don’t want to be losing to teams round about you, so it’s a massive game. We know if we could win it would put Ayr in a tricky position to come back from.
“Peterhead are flying at the moment and had a great result against Ayr last weekend.
“But we just need to keep doing our job and not worry too much about other results. As long as we’re doing our job and keep winning, there’s nothing anyone else can do.
“It’s a massive game because if they were to win they would take lots of confidence from it. They’ve got a game in hand and it could be down to as little as four points.
“But if we can win it puts us 13 ahead of them and it would be a big ask for them to close that.
“Beating them twice in a couple of weeks in the cup and the league set us up well and we went on a good run from those games.
“It wasn’t pretty either time but we got the job done and hopefully we can do that again.”
Moffat joined Dunfermline from Ayr in 2014 and had been frustrated in outings against his old club until the last time they met.
Five games without scoring against the Palmerston Park side had some talking of a hoodoo against his former employers.
However, the 30-year-old is hopeful his opener in the 2-1 success in December can open the floodgates against his ex-team-mates.
He added: “It was playing on my mind a wee bit, because it had been a few games that I hadn’t scored against them.
“So, it was nice to get one the last time and hopefully I can get another this week.
“Some teams you seem to score against all the time and there’s others you just don’t score against. It’s just one of those things.
“But I got the monkey off my back the last time, so hopefully I can go and get another one this time.
“Hopefully we can win again on Saturday and keep the gap we have at the top.
“We don’t want anybody getting too close. After losing a game and drawing it was good to get a win last Saturday.
“If we can get a win it would be a big week for us after Ayr lost last weekend.”
