Roddy Forsyth's Sunday Telegraph article

DUNFERMLINE, as the signs on its boundaries proclaim, is twinned with the former German naval base of Wilhelmshaven. Sign-writers might have added that Dunfermline is a twin town in its own right, courtesy of Dick and Ian Campbell, formerly full-back and striker for the local club.

Their presence in the dug-out at East End Park must have prompted irregular Sky viewers to check that they were not watching a split-screen transmission during last week's encounter with Rangers. Of course, it is quite possible there have been other instances of twins working together in football management but none come readily to mind.

Bert Paton's resignation as the Fifers' boss last month opened the way for the Campbell brothers to etch their own entry in record books and pub quizzes. Seniority counts for something, even with this closely matched pair from Hill O'Beith. Dick, 25 minutes the elder, is the ebullient, outspoken and rarely outshouted manager. Ian, who has built up a prosperous management motivation consultancy, is the quiet man of East End Park.

"We're different characters. I'm supposed to be the aggressive and extrovert brother but anybody would be more aggressive than Ian," says Dick. "He's very laid back in everything that he does. When we were playing together here I remember that when he scored it would be me that was jumping up and down."

It took time for the differences to emerge, apparently. "How could we not have been close, being twins," Ian recollects. "We were inseparable but it's funny, you go through stages, don't you? Earlier in our lives we shared the same clothes, slept in the same bed, did everything together. But then you search for your own identity in your formative years."

That the pair have been drawn together again professionally was not a circumstance entirely of their own devising. Bert Paton realised that if Dick Campbell was to succeed as a manager, his greatest ally was already in the family. "Bert said to me once, while he was grooming me to take over from him, that I should always remember this is a very lonely job.

"He told me that I had the attributes to make a go of it but most importantly I had my twin brother to talk to. I took it very flippantly when he said that but I know now what he was on about and I've only been in the job five weeks.

"You need someone you can trust totally and I am so lucky that he's not only my twin brother, he's my best friend. Anyway, I've got to keep in with him because he's got more money than me."

As the Liverpool arrangement of Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier proved, despite all the earnest pleadings of the Anfield board beforehand, co-management is a concept which simply does not translate into football practice. Nor is it suggested that Campbell equals Campbell in this instance, according to Ian.

"Dick is very definitely the front man, the gaffer but if the players want to moan about him they don't come to me, they go to our coach, John McVeigh. The manager naturally takes the lead and Dick is the boss. Everybody here knows the score and that includes me. The one whose head is on the chopping block all the time must stand or fall by his decisions and it's up to the rest of us to support him positively.

"Which is not to say that we don't argue, because we do disagree about some things when we're on our own, but in the end he's the person who's got to make the right decisions at the right time."

If the twins are to enjoy longevity in their unique position, the next two weeks look crucial. Having been exposed to the firepower of Rangers last Sunday and Celtic yesterday, Dunfermline face another pair of demanding encounters against second-placed Kilmarnock and lively Motherwell, both away from home. Failure to take a point from either game would almost certainly leave the Fifers marooned at the foot of the division with only 10 games remaining.

If they can stay within touching distance of Dundee United and Hearts, or even make up ground on the other strugglers, Dunfermline would be entitled to look forward with some optimism to the closing stages of the league season because six of their last 10 games and four of their final six are at home.

"To be honest, we would have preferred to have the next two matches at East End Park rather than away but since we have to take things as they come it's extremely important for the players to sustain their self-belief so that we can convert the draws we have been getting into wins," Ian emphasises.

Win or lose, brotherly love does not extend to spending Saturday nights together, huddled in analysis of what went right or wrong earlier in the day. Ian is not the kind to bounce back from defeat like a rubber ball. "After games we don't hang about each other much. Dick will be disappointed after we lose but he's got the players up again on Monday. I take things to heart so you can say ta ta to me for two or three days. I'm even more boring than I am usually."

"Aye," is Dick's final thought. "You could say it's goodnight from me and it's goodnight from him."