CALLUM Morris believes Dunfermline shouldn’t get carried away with drawing against top flight rivals Hearts and topping their Betfred Cup qualifying group – but predicted the East End Park club can challenge for promotion this season.
Allan Johnston’s side, missing leading scorer Nicky Cark and new signing Dean Shiels, dominated long spells of the match at Tynecastle on Saturday and led until three minutes from time after goals from Joe Cardle and Declan McManus.
But defender Morris believes there are areas the Fife outfit need to improve on if they want to challenge his former club Dundee United, Falkirk and Inverness Caledonian Thistle for a place in the Premiership in the 2017/18 campaign.
“It is always nice to pit yourself against a bigger team and better players,” he said. “We equipped ourselves well. But we don’t want to get carried away because the season hasn’t kicked off and won’t until the Livingston game on Saturday. We will take positives from this, but there are also things we need to work on for next week.
“It is fine by us if we aren’t being tipped for promotion. We know what we have in the squad and we have signed some great players along with the boys who were here last season and just fell short. We will go about things quietly and improve week-by-week and we will see what happens at the end of season.
“You look around it and there are a number of players with top-level experience. (Kallum) Higginbotham has played up there and a few lads who have been at Rangers. I don’t see why we would be far off. Last season we played Hamilton off the park twice in the cup and it came down to penalties and that isn’t a nice way to go out.
“There is a lot of belief in the squad that wasn’t there this time last season. After the back end of last season the boys know we have got something special and we have brought in players to add to it. Like you have seen we have done well. We have to keep our feet on the ground and working hard.”
Morris added: “People were a bit worried about us on the back of the friendlies. I think as a squad we knew what we had in the locker and as people have seen we have got better and better as the games have gone on. We got the chance to showcase what we could do against one of the best teams in Scotland. We were happy with the performance.
“To be honest we didn’t think too much about Hearts. It is the cup, but it is still pre-season and we have been concentrating on ourselves and what we want to do during the season. Apart from the two goals we are pleased how the game went.
“It is fine with me if people think we are off the radar. We still go about our work the way we have been. We have put in four good performances now and finished top of the group, which is brilliant. People can say what they want about Hearts. That is not for us to comment about. We have done really well and hopefully we can take that momentum into the new season.”
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