HITMAN Michael Moffat believes that adjusting to a new style of passing play has had an effect on his goal tally so far this season.

But the Pars number nine insists he is working hard on the training pitch to rediscover his scoring touch – and has former club Ayr United firmly in his sights.

The 29-year-old enjoyed an impressive campaign last year with the Somerset Park side as he ended as League One’s top goalscorer with a tally of 27 goals which prompted Jim Jefferies to recruit him in the summer to spearhead Athletic’s title assault.

Moffat has netted four goals so far this term but is without a goal in his last three and although he told Press Sport that he is not worried by his lack of strikes, he admitted it took time to adjust to playing in a different way.

He said, “I’m usually quite harsh on myself and I think that I should have scored a few more goals so far this season but I’d be more disappointed if I was scoring and we were getting beat.

“It is something I need to work on in training but it takes time to adjust to a different style of play. At Ayr it was much more direct with the ball being played up to me quickly but here there’s a lot more passing and movement. We do create a lot of chances and maybe it just takes one to go in. I’m not too worried at the moment but hopefully I’ll get back on the goal trail on Friday in familiar surroundings!” Moffat will face the Honest Men for the first time since his departure that led to Ayr chairman Lachlan Cameron commenting that “it baffles me how a team that a year ago were on the brink of extinction with no assets and debts far outweighing any reasonable chance of getting out of can offer such a rewarding package to a single player”.

He expects to receive some stick from the home crowd but he continued, “It’ll be good to go and see the boys and have a catch-up. I’m sure there will be a wee bit of banter which is part and parcel of football but it won’t bother me too much. They’re doing well so it should be a good game. They’re got some good, experienced players and I fancy them to be in and around the play-offs but hopefully we can get three points and go back to the top of the league.

“I didn’t win against Dunfermline last season with Ayr – they were a bit of a bogey side for us – so hopefully I’ll be on the winning side this time!

“We’ve won five of our last six and we need to keep that kind of run going. Our home form has been good and can hopefully take care of itself but our away from has been a bit up and down. We are starting to score goals and keep clean sheets so hopefully we can take that into the Ayr game then watch the results on Saturday and see how the other teams respond.”