ATHLETIC manager James McPake said "we're all in it together" and wants a much improved performance when Queen's Park come calling this weekend.

The Pars were humbled 5-0 at home by Morton on Saturday and he admitted he was "embarrassed" by the result.

That sobering defeat has left Dunfermline without a win in their last seven games, as well as hovering just one point, and one place, above this weekend's second bottom opponents.

Although they have a game in hand, defeat for the Pars would drop them into the relegation play-off place, whilst six points separate them from bottom club Arbroath.

A win, though, would take them up to sixth in the table. McPake said: "It's been a long few days. You hurt when you suffer any defeat, but defeats like that really do hurt you - players, staff, fans, everybody connected with the club.

"The thing with football is you've got a chance to get back out there quickly to try and get the performance level back up, and get a positive result, and that's what we'll be working on all week.

"You've got to get over it, you've got to work, and that's if you win, if you draw, if you lose a game. You're still always analysing but I think what's important is we don't dwell on it, we don't over-analyse.

"You need to have tough conversations at times and get points of view from different people. Everybody gets the chance to voice their opinion and have a say, all for the one thing, and that's to make us progress as a team going into the next game.

"We've done that and now all focus shifts to Saturday.

"Every game's important. I get where they are in the league and where we are, but you kind of go away from that a wee bit. First and foremost, we need to make sure we perform.

"We didn't perform on Saturday so, again, it doesn't matter who you're playing. Whether you're playing Greenock Morton, or whether you're playing a League Two team.

"If we'd performed that way, and not defended our box properly, I think any team would've beaten us on Saturday.

"We need to get that right. We need to do a lot of work on the training ground, which we're doing, we need to get certain things right, and get going again.

"We still do believe this squad's good. Yeah, there are injuries, we get that, but it's still a good squad.

"We saw signs at Tannadice the week before, which was a very resolute defensive performance.

"We need to get back to that. We're all in it together. We win together, we lose together, and defeats like this, we all hurt together, but you put it behind you, work extra hard and give everything you've got, you can get a performance on Saturday for everyone."

McPake is set to be without Sam Fisher, who has a calf injury, whilst Craig Wighton, who was substituted on Saturday, has had a scan on an issue impacting the back of his knee.