Queens Go Doon Hame With A Point
Date: Tuesday, 6th Dec 2022Queen of the South visited Dunfermline Athletic in the final home match of 2022 for the Pars, with Match-Day 17 seeing the penultimate match of the SPFL cinch League One second quarter take place at KDM Group East End Park.
Former-Athletic winger Willie Gibson travelled to West Fife with a side who are a bit of a hit or a miss this campaign, with really impressive results and real shockers, too. It was completely unpredictable which Queens side would arrive on a cold, winters day, in early December.
For James McPake, his side remain with only 1 league defeat in 16 matches prior to this contest, coming off the back of an impressive 4-0 win over Forfar Athletic in the Scottish Cup the week prior, so it was unsurprising to see an unchanged Starting XI for the league leaders.
It was a really ponderous start for both Clubs – the hosts had the majority of the possession, without really troubling Max Currie in the visitors goal. Deniz Mehmet was also quiet, with Josh Todd firing a couple of harmless shots from distance which weren`t on-target. And in truth, the first-half looked to be petering out, until the final seconds of the opening period...
The Pars lost the ball in the middle of the park and the Doonhamers broke with speed and precision. Lee Connelly slipped the ball through for Ruari Paton, who calmly slotted the ball past Mehmet and into the back of the net. 1-0 to the visitors with virtually the last kick of that 45 minutes.
A real body blow for DAFC.
As you`d expect, the home side rallied and built up momentum – a change in formation early on in to the final period of the match saw Sam Fisher replaced by Nikolay Todorov; a striker on for a defender. And it would be Todorov who would make the telling impact, with the big Bulgarian coming off the bench to equalise with a trademark goal for the Pars #10. Kane Ritchie-Hosler fed Aaron Comrie down the right and his delivery found the head of Todorov, with the ball bulleting in off the inside of the post.
Both sides had chances in the remaining 20+ minutes of the match, with both goals coming under siege as the game ebbed and flowed from one end to another. And it was Todorov who came the closest of them all to win it, as well. The hosts got the break of the ball in the middle of the park and broke with speed, the ball being played to the forward who had peeled off to the right-hand side of the penalty area: he struck a sweet right-footed effort which looked in all the way, but the ball squirmed the wrong side of the post for McPake`s men, as the game ended all square.
Dunfermline Athletic Manager, James McPake, admitted after the game to ParsTV that a draw was a fair reflection on proceedings:
The Pars move onto this Friday`s match with Arbroath now, as McPake takes his side to higher level opposition, in the SPFL Trust Trophy 4th Round – a good chance for the squad to test themselves against Championship opposition, which will provide McPake and Assistant Manager, Dave Mackay, with a good referencing point of where they currently are and where they need to get to if they want to be successful in the Championship, if and when the Football Club returns to Scotland`s second-tier under the guidance of the current Management Team.
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