JAMES MCPAKE has called on his Athletic stars to finish their home fixtures with a flourish and send their supporters home with positivity.

Dunfermline host Inverness Caledonian Thistle in their penultimate Championship match this season still needing a point to be completely sure of not finishing second bottom and in the relegation play-off spot.

They are six points clear of Queen's Park, who currently occupy that place, and with a superior goal difference, but a draw at worst against Duncan Ferguson's Highlanders will ensure they can't finish ninth.

As it stands, the odds are significantly in their favour to be playing second tier football next term, but the Pars boss still wants his side to give their fans reasons to cheer by producing a good performance and result to match.

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"We were a bit more content with the performance in terms of the individual and as a unit last Saturday compared to the week before, but we want to build on that and want to finish the league campaign here with a positive performance and a positive result," McPake commented.

"It is the last league home game and we need to give the crowd something to get involved in the game, and go away pleased with the effort of the players.

"Strip it all back, the result is the important thing, but I want them to perform and get the result off the back of a good performance. It will be important to give the supporters something to go away with.

"I don’t think they can complain about the attitude or the application of the players, but do they deserve something better? Yeah, when we are here they want to see us score goals.

"I think we created enough chances last Saturday but ultimately we never put the ball in the net.

"It would be good to get them off their seats to get them excited, to get them walking away from Saturday’s last home league game happy with what they have seen on the pitch from a Dunfermline team."

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The Pars and Inverness have drawn all three of their previous meetings this season, with the last at East End, which ended 1-1 in November, memorable for the number of times McPake's men struck the goalframe.

Inverness come into it one point and one place above Queen's Park, who go to already-relegated Arbroath, and have won three and drawn two of their last eight games.

"They were on a good run of form as well and, similar to their last game here, when we hit the woodwork seven or eight times, they were very unlucky against Raith Rovers (last Friday, when they lost 1-0)," McPake continued.

"It was a good performance and they had won two in a row before that. They are out of that play-off place at the minute and they are fighting to keep that gap or increase that gap. They would like to claw a couple of teams down with one game to go so everything is on the line for them and we need to be aware of that."

When asked if it was difficult for his team to go into the game knowing that it would take an unlikely set of results for Dunfermline to end up in a relegation play-off, McPake replied: "As long as it is not over, you are going into the game the same way you would.

"This is the season in management where we have not being going for a league title, not been going for the promotion play-offs, but I think that there’s always a pride there.

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"Particularly after the Airdrie game, we had got ourselves on a decent run and we had given ourselves a chance of looking to get into the promotion play-offs, but we were always very aware of what was going on below us.

"The players are aware of that, we’re aware of it, the supporters are certainly aware of it, and I think that’s why there was a nervousness around last week’s game with Queen’s Park coming here.

"It was a pretty high pressure game, different from what we have had. We had a few of them last year when we were going for a league title with Falkirk coming here.

"It is different when you are at the front with a wee cushion when you are chasing but now we have teams chasing us so the motivation is still there. Even if it wasn’t, we still wouldn’t be downing tools.

"As I have said before, there is an expectancy at this football club, no matter what league that you are in. Anytime that you are playing at home you have to perform. There’s a way of getting after teams, creating chances, and this place can be good when it is like that. There can be moans and groans from the crowd when that is not happening.

"We agree with that. We work all week to perform on a Saturday home and away. We take big crowds away from home and, when we are at home, we always have a decent crowd in here.

"We need to turn up, we need to perform, wherever we were in the league.

"There is still a lot to play for and we have got to do that.

"You never waste a game of football. You never know how long or how many games you are going to have. It is a pleasure to go on a football pitch, I genuinely mean that and we can’t let that go."