Dunfermline Athletic 1 Kilmarnock 1

The Pars` search for a home win continues after they shared the points with Kilmarnock on a freezing February evening. Fowler gave the visitors the lead against the run of play midway through the half before Kirk equalised just before the break. Both sides spurned chances to score in the second half with late call up Smith being the busier of the two keepers.

The first game after the closure of the January transfer window often means that teams have a new look about them, particularly if you’ve missed a couple of games, and the Pars ultimately made 5 changes from the team that lost at Aberdeen. There were two debutants – Jordan McMillan at right back and Kyle Hutton in left centre midfield, and Mark Kerr was making his home debut (and already his second appearance against the team who wanted to sign him) alongside Hutton. Paul Burns also made a comeback on the right-hand side, with David Graham retaining his berth on the left. Macca went with 2 up front, meaning a recall for Kirk to partner Buchanan, and Rutkiewicz, Keddie and Boyle also started. There was some late drama as Iain Turner’s back started to spasm during the warm up and so Chris Smith made a last minute step-up from the bench. Although that meant there were only 6 on the bench, it was a fairly strong sextet – as well as the 2 under 21s Willis and Thomson, there were Dowie, Hardie, McDougall and the birthday boy Cardle.

Killie also had a few new faces in their squad, but it was the familiar faces of Dean Shiels and Paul Heffernan that would need close attention as they went with what looked like a 4-3-2-1.

The Pars kicked off defending the town end as usual, but there was little to shout about early on. The home team seemed happy to take their time and get used to the conditions and their new team-mates, retaining a lot of possession, the ball frequently making the journey from Hutton to Kerr to McMillan without ever looking like threatening the Killie rearguard.

It took until 14 minutes for any action worth recording – Kirk being given enough time and space to control the ball and turn 30 yards out but his drive was well off target. Two minutes later it was much closer – Buchanan did Pascali on the outside but his drive flashed across the face of goal before being collected by Graham, but Fowler blocked his shot.

Killie had barely been over the half-way line but in 21 minutes debutant right-back Toshney, on loan from Celtic, was given space to progress down the right flank and send in a dangerous looking cross. McMillan was alert enough to get in front of Heffernan to head half clear but only to the edge of the box where Fowler drove the ball through a forest of legs into the middle of the goal past Smith who seemed to dive out of the way.

Killie had their tails up – Keddie’s timely block on Heffernan prevented further damage and then Burns was lax in waiting for the ball to arrive, allowing Gordon to nip in and run for goal, cutting back to Shiels but Smith was able to save to his left. In 35 minutes Shiels himself broke clear but this time cut back to Heffernan, but Boyle was in to tackle at the key moment.

It wasn’t just the opposition that were testing Smith – several times he faced passes back to his weaker foot (although given the state of the pitch and mindful of another Palmerston type calamity this may have been preferable to putting the ball on-target). The keeper struggled with these clearances, although he did accidentally work a neat one-two with Rutkiewicz, albeit the return pass took quite an aerial flight-path.

Killie were growing in confidence as Kerr was starting to favour early balls hit long but with Kirk and Buchanan showing little mutual understanding, this tactic merely ceded possession.

The visitors had a good chance of a second late in the half – a momentary lapse in defensive concentration meant they had one man over and as the whole defence seemed to move in one to compensate Racchi was left free to have a pop but he was off target.

However, the Pars got the equaliser – Killie were pressing and the Pars had a couple of goes at playing the ball out of defence before Graham took a third attempt on the run and advanced before releasing Kirk who had timed his run from deep. Bell was tempted to come rushing out to the edge of his box but Kirk got there first and hit it early. Bell got something on it, but not enough to stop it sneaking in at the far post - Kirk was already celebrating. There was barely enough time to restart before we had the break.

Half time: Pars 1 Killie 1

It was a shaky start to the second half with defensive mistakes spreading to the new boys. Keddie hit a clearance off Boyle, before Hutton hit one off Burns, eventually conceding a corner. It took several attempts to clear the corner and then when the ball came back in Smith made a horlicks of dealing with it and ended up booting the ball clear.