Pars travel along the road in League Cup
Author: J Barber Date: Monday, 23rd Sep 2002This Tuesday evening (24th) Dunfermline travel the shortest possible distance they could, to play Cowdenbeath in the second round of this years CIS Insurance League Cup.
Dunfermline will be strong favourites to win the knockout tie, but will be wary after some rather poor cup exits in recent years. Here we look ahead to the game and look back to a previous match at Cowdenbeath......
Jimmy Calderwood will have some crucial decisions to make with regards to his team selection for this game. He will be wanting to ensure a safe passage into the third round draw, but he will not be wanting to risk any injuries that may affect the successful league campaign currently on the go.
Craig Brewster must be a doubt after his nasty head knock on Saturday. Some quick stitching work and he was back on the park, but the manager may take the opportunity to rest the on-form veteran for this cup tie. Lee Bullen showed his worth as a stand in striker against Motherwell so could well start the game as partner to Stevie Crawford.
Elsewhere in the team, nobody appears to have suffered any knocks, no thanks to the rough arm tactics of Motherwell! Gary Mason will be hoping to improve on his performance at the weekend and hopefully return to the form we all know he can produce.
Jimmy Calderwood, and the entire club, will not be treating this tie lightly. The rewards for a good cup run are well documented and there is no reason why this Dunfermline squad cannot be putting in a serious challenge for some silverware, assuming the draw is kinder than it has been in the past......
In recent years, there have not been too many clashes with our near neighbours. The most recent league encounters took place back in season 1992/93, which ended with a disastrous run of results including the infamous 2-0 defeat at home to Cowdenbeath near the end of the season. The previous meetings to that in the league were during Dunfermline`s championship winning second division campaign back in 1985/86.
Earlier on that campaign, things were looking better and Dunfermline travelled to Central Park for the second game of the season on 5th August 1992. The Pars lined up with:
Hamilton, Shannon, Sharp, McCathie, Robertson, Cooper, Kelly, O`Boyle, Grant, Leitch and Davies. Cunnington and Sinclair remained on the bench.
In front of a poor derby crowd of just 2,061 Dunfermline took early command of the game and never looked like losing out.
Goals from Craig Robertson (back for his second spell at the club), George O`Boyle, a youthful Scott Leitch and a double from the midfielder Billy Davies saw Dunfermline run out comfortable 5-2 winners.
A similar score would not go amiss this week, although Marco will be hoping that the ever growing confidence between him and his defence continues, assuming all those personnel will be playing.
Early goals could see Dunfermline run out comfortable winners, although a frustrating start could see Cowdenbeath grow in confidence. It is a classic David v Goliath cup tie, let`s hope the big man wins in the end.........
`MON THE PARS!
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