CHARLES DIGNAN enjoyed his first win in charge of Dunfermline Athletic Ladies as they progressed to the last 16 of the Scottish Women's Football League (SWFL) Plate on Sunday.

In his second competitive game in charge since taking up the position last month, the former Alloa Athletic boss watched his team earn a 3-0 win over Westdyke Thistle at Pitreavie.

Tyler Sibbons put the hosts in front before Ellis Yeaman and Alex Davie also got on the scoresheet.

The match ended prematurely, in unfortunate circumstances, when Westdyke's Caro Ferguson sustained a serious leg injury.

"I wish her a speedy recovery. I think she's a credit to her team, the way she handled the injury as well, and big thanks to the ambulance staff and everybody that helped on the day," Dignan said.

"We were in control. We weren't really under any pressure at any time, and we were the only team really looking like we were going to go and score more. We definitely deserved to go through.

"We were the team that was dominating the game, so I think the right and fair thing was that we went through. I have no qualms about that. The opposition, fair play to them as well, they said the exact same."

Dunfermline dropped into the Plate competition following the conclusion of the SWFL Cup group stages. Although the Pars finished second in their group behind Armadale Thistle, their record wasn't quite good enough to claim one of the best runners-up spots to progress in the cup.

Dignan has already seen signs of promise from his side, and continued: "Even though we took the team early December, you had the Christmas break, and then obviously you had no football.

"We took on a very hard friendly match against Dryburgh that we knew would be difficult, against a team two leagues above us.

"We used that game to let the players express themselves a little bit, and just let them work within a formation and a set up they had been working to, knowing fine well that myself and my coaching staff were going to change that identity, how we play and how we set ourselves up.

"You almost have to see how players react in situations that they're comfortable with before you start almost trying to add a little bit of chaos to that, and try and make too many changes.

"The week before our first competitive game we started to chat through what the new formation was going to look like going forward. We used that whole week to work on the shape, patterns of play, how we want to set ourselves up, what we do off the ball, on the ball, set pieces.

"We went into that game with Armadale, and although we lost 5-3, you'd think we'd done a lot more sessions with them, in terms of how quick they adapted to the new formation and the new set up.

"We took that into last week's training sessions, and you can really, really see what we were trying to do. From some of the gaps from the Armadale game, we absolutely nailed in the Westdyke game."

Next up for the Pars this Sunday is their last 16 tie with East Fife Development, which kicks off at 1.30pm at Pitreavie.

Dignan added: "We will go out to win every game. There won't be a game where we go out to try and sit in and almost play for damage limitation or anything like that.

"We believe we've got a top side and we will always set ourselves up to go and win the game. We look at the plate and we think why not? Why can we not go and win the plate?

"We look at the league and think why can we not start climbing the table and start putting pressure on the teams above us in the top three?

"The team is certainly good enough to do it. That's how we're looking at every game, and that's the aspiration for the season."