Dunfermline Athletic

Queen of the South 2 - 0 Dunfermline Athletic

Author: Alistair Campbell Date: Saturday, 2nd Oct 2010

Ten minutes of defensive madness cost the Pars two goals and the points in the rain at Dumfries. First Smith completely missed a Dowie pass-back then he was lobbed from 40 yards by McLaren.

Holmes takes issue with Bell

If you’re a goal-keeper there is no hiding place. No-one remembers all the good work you do, they just remember the mistakes. Chris Smith had one of those days, with 15 minutes of as shaky keeping as I’ve seen from one of his standard, although the rest of his defence weren’t blameless either. But that’s for later. There was one change to the Pars’ line-up with Gibson coming in for Willis, who dropped to the bench, where Burke gave way. We had the usual 4-4-2 of Smith in goals, Wood and McCann the full-backs, Dowie and Higgins the centre-backs, Bell and Mason in centre mid-field, Cardle on the left-wing and Gibson on the right wing. Kirk and Clarke were the striking duo. The subs were the usual suspects – Phinn, McDougall and Willis, plus Keddie and Allison. There was no sign of Alex Burke, Jack Ross or Neil McGregor, although a bearded David Graham participated in some of the warm-up as he looks to regain fitness.

Queen of the South also made one change, McKenna coming in for Weatherston, as they kept their normal 3-5-2 formation with the experienced pair of Willie McLaren and Derek Holmes up front.

Mason challenges Burns

The home team kicked off, but early on the Pars looked the likelier of the two teams in the wet conditions. Cardle was seeing more than his fair share of the ball, getting in behind McGuffie early on but hitting a tame cross straight to keeper Hutton. However, there was a flash-point in the 6th minute – Johnston was late in on Cardle and with most eyes on Joe as he writhed on the ground, Bell kicked out at McKenna. It looked like he had got away with it, but the far-side assistant attracted the referee’s attention. Former Scottish Cricket captain Salmond opted to flash yellow, rather than dismiss Bell back to the pavilion.

The teams traded corners, but the first half-chance didn’t arrive until the 17th minute. Gibson conceded a free-kick from a mistimed sliding tackle on the impressive Conroy, and after the initial ball was cleared the ball was swung in from the other wing beyond Woods at the far post where McLaren stretched to touch the ball over the bar. That seemed to spur the Pars to buck up their ideas, and Pat Clarke was unlucky to see his curled effort from the corner of the box strike the far post full on with Hutton beaten.

Cardle had the next effort with a header from a chipped cross from Bell as he got to the bye-line. He didn’t get a lot of power on it, but it might have sneaked home. However, McGuffie took no chances and headed behind.

The Pars had some momentum – just after the half-hour there were two chances – Clarke got ahead of Lilley to get his foot to Cardle’s cross, but hit straight at Hutton, then seconds later Kirk was clear on the left, but his outside-of-the-foot shot took the faintest of touches from Hutton’s glove to give the Pars their 3rd corner. However, their best chance came 3 minutes from the break. Gibson’s shimmy got him away from Harris, and Cardle laid his deep cross back to Bell 8 yards out. Bell however hit his shot wide.

There was still time for a scare – Cardle was a little late to heed Macca’s instruction to track Reid’s forward run, and when he did get back to his own box to defend he seemed a bit clumsy with his block, and Reid tumbled. Mr Salmond looked like he had pointed to the spot, but he had merely indicated a goal kick.

Half time: Doonhamers 0 Pars 0

The break had come at a good time for the home team and the second half was pretty level for 7 minutes until the game’s turning point, an own goal of disastrous and farcical proportions. Dowie was at the right hand edge of his own area and under slight pressure played back left-footed to his keeper. His pass was firm, the ball was in the air to begin with and Smith seemed unsure whether to hit it first time, or to take a touch. In the end he did neither, missed the ball and looked round in anguish as the ball trundled into the net. 1-0 Queens.



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