KYLE MacDONALD is confident that the Pars will become more clinical in front of goal if chances continue to be created.

The 22-year-old, who himself has only found the net once for Dunfermline, was an impressive performer during Saturday’s keenly-contested, top-of-the-table clash with Airdrieonians.

Although there was disappointment in the closing stages, when what looked to be a perfectly legitimate winning goal from Rhys Breen was chalked off by referee Grant Irvine, former Diamonds star MacDonald reckons the way his side played provided plenty of optimism.

“Playing in that wing back position, it is important that I put good balls into the box, especially when we are playing with two strikers up top,” he said.

“Obviously (Nikolay) Todorov, and (Lewis) McCann when he came on, Kev (Kevin O’Hara) and Wiggy (Craig Wighton) when he is back fit – we have good strikers in the team who can finish.

“If I can help by putting balls into the box for them to finish then hopefully, on another day, we can score more than we did today.

“It is tough to take. We created a lot of chances in the game and, as we have been saying for a few weeks now, we need to start taking our chances.”

MacDonald joined the Pars from Airdrie in the summer of 2019 and, in the second half of last term, returned there on loan while his parent club fought a losing battle against the drop.

The side he came up against on Saturday featured a different management team, with former Par, Rhys McCabe, appointed as player-boss to succeed Ian Murray, who departed for Raith Rovers.

“They like to play the ball about and you could see today that they were probably our toughest test so far this season,” MacDonald continued.

“We matched them, more than matched them, and we felt like we could have gone away with three points.

“I think that is a positive to take from today to take into next week.

“Every team is tight, every team is hard to beat, most teams defend their box well so when you are winning games like we have, it is going to be by one or two goals and we are going to need to be good defensively.

“We have been and that is the first goal that we have conceded. It is a good start but hopefully we can get back to winning ways next week.”