JOHN HUGHES has urged his players to relish the challenge of Saturday’s huge relegation crunch match with Ayr United.

The Pars boss believes big players embrace pressure situations and “do something about it”, and he wants to see that from his men at East End.

Defeat at Kilmarnock, combined with former Pars favourite Lee Bullen’s team fighting back to draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, has left the ninth-placed Pars three points, and two goals, worse off than the Honest Men, who are directly above them in the table.

A win by more than one goal would take Dunfermline out of the relegation play-off place with two matches to go but defeat could leave them facing a bottom-two finish.

The club is hopeful that they will receive backing in numbers from the stands, and have launched a two-match ticket package for the Ayr game, and the final-day meeting with Queen of the South, where fans can save up to £5 than from buying individual briefs.

Hughes knows the impact a noisy, passionate East End can have on his players but he insists they need to entertain them in return, and rise to what is likely to be a nerve-shredding afternoon.

“There’s three games to go, all to play for, so we need to be positive in looking forward,” he told Press Sport.

“I don’t mind us talking about where are, relegation. We’ve all been a part of it. Everybody’s played a part in it, no matter if you’ve just come in at Christmas, or from the start of the season, or myself. We’ve all had a part to play.

“I want to embrace it. I don’t want to try and hide it under the carpet. Big players embrace that and go and do something about it, and that’s the mindset I’m looking for the guys to have.

“What will be will be. There’s no point in being afraid of it; embrace it, it’s a game of football.

“You can only influence what we do, and that’s at three o’clock on a Saturday when the game starts. Whatever is going on elsewhere doesn’t matter.”

When asked about the significance of the game, and the prize on offer for a victory, Hughes replied: “We understand. It’s nothing different from the derby match (against Raith Rovers last Wednesday) in terms of we embrace what’s at stake.

“Even when you perform, it doesn’t always go your way, but we never performed on Saturday, and that’s the galling thing in terms of the heights we’ve been reaching.

“We need to entertain our supporters. That’s what football’s all about; we’re entertainers. You need to go and entertain our supporters, so that’s what we’re trying to do – hit that performance, stick together, entertain the fans – and, if we do that, we’re hoping that’s enough to pick up the results.

“And, if it’s not, but we still do that, sometimes you just need to take it on the chin. That’s part and parcel of football.

“We’re down to that right now (the significance of the match) but it’s been like that since I’ve come in. The only reason it’s more significant is because the games are starting to run out.

“But we’ve given ourselves a fighting chance. It was my job to come in here and try and improve it. I came in to a good squad – it was just lacking confidence and a wee bit of momentum.

“Sometimes you feel that you’ve turned that around but we’ve got three games to go and we need to make sure we’re competitive and at our best, starting with Saturday.

“We owe it to each other. We owe it to the fans. For all the hard work that we’ve put in, and the losses, the good performances, we owe it to each other come Saturday to be together and try our best to put that performance on.”

For tickets, visit www.dafc.co.uk.