ALLAN JOHNSTON has demanded a reaction from his Pars players and has warned he’ll ring the changes if they don’t perform.

Dunfermline slumped to their third Championship defeat – and their third successive away game in all competitions without scoring – at Inverness on Saturday in a match in which they lacked a goal threat.

None of the club’s strikers found the net during October but, ahead of this Saturday’s derby at Falkirk, the Athletic boss has challenged his whole team to improve in the final third on the road.

“We know we can play a lot better than we did and I don’t think we worked the keeper enough,” Johnston told Press Sport.

“We had a lot of possession in their half but you’ve got to work the keeper, get quality crosses into the box, have shots and play through passes. There wasn’t enough. You’ve not got the right to go out there and win every game – you’ve got to make it happen, work incredibly hard and make sure that sometimes you get a wee bit of quality or luck as well.

“It’s the whole team when I’m talking about attacking and defending; it’s not just ones and twos. The whole team needs to be creating chances and, even if the strikers aren’t scoring, you need more from your midfield or wide players.

“It was pleasing to see Joe (Cardle) come off the bench. You can see he has an eye for goal and that’s what we need. We need more from everybody, even the centre halves coming up for set pieces. We need to attack the ball.

“We can all raise our game. We’re all better than what we showed and hopefully we can get back on track at the weekend.

“We’ve got a competitive squad. Everybody wants to play but we need to make sure we get results to stay in the team because if we’re not getting results and not getting performances, you won’t be in the team.

“We’ll look at it over the week, look at where we went wrong at the weekend as well and hopefully we can put it right on Saturday.”

The Pars have already beaten their fierce rivals this season thanks to August’s 3-1 win at East End Park but travel across the Kincardine Bridge having not won at the Falkirk Stadium since March 2011.

Since then, there have been five defeats in six competitive matches, with the Bairns winning each of the last three.

The latest was last month’s Irn-Bru Cup reverse but, rather than look back, Johnston is fully focused on keeping pace with Dunfermline’s top four rivals, while extending Falkirk’s winless home run to seven league games.

Asked if there will be a reaction from his side, he continued: “There’s got to be, especially as it’s a derby. There’s no better game to come back to and it’s one we’re all looking forward to. Hopefully, we can go and put on a performance in and get our fans onside. Those games (the previous losses at Falkirk) are in the past; it doesn’t matter as long as we win at the weekend.

“With the internationals, it’s important to finish with a win when we’ve not got a (league) game for a couple of weeks. It’s always difficult going there but it’d give everyone a massive lift to win.”

International call-ups mean Dunfermline will be out of action the following week and one of those called-up is Ryan Williamson, who is in the Scotland under-21 squad.

He signed a one-year contract extension last Friday and Johnston added: “You can see that he is getting back to his best. He has been picked for the Scotland under-21s and it’s great for the club when you have boys of that calibre playing in the team and wanting to commit their future to the club. Now he has to push on and work even harder.”