Dunfermline Athletic 3
Ross County 1

Three points, three goals and no booking for Dinger. A decent day at the office and a good start to a run of winnable games.

Andy Kirk attacking

Three changes, two enforced, were made to the team that had scrapped so hard for a point last week. Glass was still injured, Woods suspended and Wiles dropped to the bench as the Pars adopted their usual 4-4-2 formation. Thomson started as he had finished last week, at right back, with Shields and skipper Wilson in the centre of defence and McCann playing left back. Bell joined Phinn in the engine room with Burke nominally left mid-field and Harper making a slightly surprising return on the right wing. Kirk and Bayne were looking to get back among the goals up front, with Gallacher between the sticks looking to thwart the opposition. Loan signing Ross Campbell featured on an inexperienced bench as did Wiles, McBride, sub keeper Reidford and youngster Lee Graham. The visitors’ dug-out featured former Pars legends Ross Jack and Stewart Petrie, as well as Scott Morrison; Mark McCulloch made it onto the pitch at right-back.

Defending in front of the Norrie McCathie stand the Pars almost got off to a disastrous start inside 15 seconds when Dyron Daal nearly charged down Gallacher’s clearance from a McCann back pass. The visitors settled first and were soon into their neat passing game. However, the Pars took the lead after 5 minutes with their first venture down field. Harper turned his man in the centre circle and as he raced towards goal Hart brought him down 25 yards out and in a central position, receiving a yellow card for his pains. Up stepped Scott Thomson to curl a terrific free-kick right footed over the wall and into the postage stamp corner. 1-0 Pars.

Undaunted the Dingwall-based side continued to apply pressure with a couple of early corners, with Gallacher opting to punch clear , but the next clear-cut chance fell to the home team in 20 minutes, when Bayne managed to find Phinn inside the box despite being on the ground. The ball wouldn’t quite sit for the mid-fielder and his shot squirmed sideways to Kirk who blasted over, albeit from an off-side position.

Harper was getting a lot of possession on the right but unable to find the killer cross; Bayne managed to get his head on one in the 28th minute but headed wide taking a knock in the process.

There was an amusing incident in the 34th minute - "stick it in row Z" is an exhortation often applied to no-nonsense defenders late in the game when clinging on to a narrow lead, but in all my time following the Pars I’d never seen anything come close, until today. A snap-shot from Richard Brittain was so high over the bar it was actually heading for row Z, until a habitue of row Y stood up to head the errant ball back onto the park, to the applause of many in the Norrie and keeper Gallacher. Well done sir!

After Bullock was alert enough to gather a Kirk cross-cum-shot Scott became the second player booked in 42 minutes after grabbing hold of Bell’s shorts as the Pars’ summer signing tried to find some space.

As half time approached a good move involving Bell, Bayne and Kirk again found Harper on the right but he slipped when in a good position; however the man of many clubs made up for it a minute later when his cross was missed by Kirk at the front post but not by Phinn at the back post and the mid-fielder stabbed the ball home for his 4th goal of the season.

Half time: Pars 2 Staggies 0

The home side were sharply out of the blocks in the second half, concocting a good move in the first minute but McCann’s cross from the left had slipped out; in the 54th minute it seemed that Kirk was certain to score after Harper sent Phinn down the right and the mid-fielder cut the ball back to the corner of the 6 yard box, but Bullock saved with his legs.

Then in 58 minutes County pulled a goal back out of nothing - for once Shields couldn’t deal with the presence of Daal who fed Craig who in turn held off Wilson’s challenge to score inside Gallacher’s right-hand post form 10 yards. 2-1 Pars and having been comfortably in front, things were getting a tad edgy.