Dunfermline: Chris Hamilton and Alex Jakubiak return to Pars training

Chris Hamilton and Alex Jakubiak are both back in training in the build-up to Saturday's home match with Queen's Park which could see Dunfermline confirm their place in next season's Championship.

Hamilton has missed Dunfermline's last two outings, against Partick Thistle and Airdrieonians, since being taken off in a game with Arbroath at the end of last month with a head injury, whilst Jakubiak was also absent for the clash with the Diamonds.

James McPake has, however, confirmed that on-loan Celtic midfielder Ben Summers' campaign is over through injury, and his returned to his parent club for treatment.

The potential return of vice-captain Hamilton, and forward Jakubiak, will be welcomed by McPake as his team seek to bounce back from losing at Airdrie against the second bottom Spiders.

With three games left, Dunfermline, with an inferior goal difference, are nine points adrift of both Airdrie and Partick Thistle, who occupy fourth and third place in the table respectively, two of the three Premiership promotion play-off spots available.

Whilst finishing in the top four now looks beyond them, Dunfermline hold a six-point gap to Callum Davidson's Queen's, who are second bottom and in the relegation play-off place.

A win would ensure the Pars can't finish ninth, whilst a draw would also leave them in a strong position, as they are also eight goals better off.

When asked if Jakubiak would be available for this weekend, McPake replied: "He is training as is Chris Hamilton, who has been a huge, huge miss.

"In games like last Saturday (at Airdrie) I don’t think that we would have lost in the same manner we did had we had Hammy in the team, just for what he brings. They are both back.

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"Ben Summers' season is done. He is back at Celtic getting rehab. Paul Allan is doing well and will be available next week. Paul will be back training on Monday and I think Aaron (Comrie) will be back training next week as well - he was trying to get back this week. I’m not quite sure when Wighty (Craig Wighton) will be back training but they are all doing well."

With the club's player of the year function taking place after the match, McPake will hope he and his squad can attend knowing that they've sealed their Championship status with a victory.

They host a Spiders team that won 3-0 on their last visit to KDM Group East End Park in February, but who have lost their last three games, including to Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday, who leapfrogged them in the table.

McPake wants an improved performance than what his team showed against Airdrie, commenting: "We were bitterly disappointed in terms of the performance.

"We stand by what we said post match, that we got out of the game what we deserved. Sometimes you go away and watch games back, and see that you were better than we thought, but that wasn’t the case. It was a poor performance all round, from myself and all the way through the team.

"We move on from that game on to this week, we just need to concentrate on the next game and go out and get our performance right first and foremost.

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"It is a big game and we have always been, as much as the talk was about going to beat Airdrie to try and get into the promotion play offs, we knew that we also had at the back of our minds, like every fan of most teams in this league, that the way this league is, you are fighting on two fronts most of the time.

"Take the top four away, everybody else is done with three games to go in terms of the top end. Arbroath’s fate is confirmed now, but every other team is still fighting.

"Historically this league is like that, a bunch of teams going into the last game. Going into the last game last season, there was only Raith Rovers with nothing to play for other than that game.

"They (Queen's Park) will be hurting off the back of a defeat to Inverness, and they are desperate for points, but so are we. We are hurting off the back of losing that game and in the manner we lost it.

"We want to put that performance right particularly being back at home."

Following the defeat against Airdrie, captain Kyle Benedictus said that the team had to turn their focus on making sure they got a result this weekend to avoid being dragged back towards second bottom.

"Football is like that," McPake continued.

"When you have won two games in a row, you are desperate to make it three, and then build on that to carry on the momentum. When you are playing well, you are desperate to continue that, but flip it when you have a poor performance, you are desperate to put it right. You are always just looking to that next game.

"I will use Arbroath as an example, yeah they know their fate, but they will be looking ahead to the game never wanting to waste a game of football. You want to go into that to get something out of it, whether you are a player, a coach or a manager.

"Ultimately that’s the performance that you have been working on all week on the training pitch. If you can then add bits of quality like we have seen throughout the season with special moments then great.

"On the whole, the performance needs to be better. It is the only one that we can concentrate on, I’m pretty consistent with that.

"We are concentrating on this game and we know that it is another tough, tough game against a team coming fighting for their lives, who will be scrapping and scraping to do everything they can to go away from here with three points.

"We need to stand up to that."