Monthly Digest - October 2003
| Stevie Crawford and Derek Stillie are both called up into the Scotland squad for the game against Lithuania. Stillie also joins Barry Nicholson and Scott Wilson in the Scotland Future squad for their game against Germany. |
| Date: | 4th October 2003 | Opposition: | Livingston | Score (H/T): | 0-0 (0-0) |
| Competition: | Sc Premier League | Venue | Almondvale | Attendance: | 4,616 |
| Scorers: | None | ||||
| Yellow Cards: | Young, Nicholson (DAFC), Kerr, McAllister (Livi) | ||||
| Pars Team: | Stillie; Bullen, Skerla, Thomson, Wilson, Nicholson (Byrne 85), Darren Young, Mason, Kilgannon (Dempsey 76); Crawford, Brewster Subs not used: Ruitenbeek, Labonte, Mehmet | ||||
| Livingston | McKenzie; Rubio, Andrews, Dorado; McGovern, Makel, Kerr, Quino (Lilley 72), McAllister (McLaughlin 69), Pasquinelli, Fernandez | ||||
| Referee: | I Fyffe | ||||
| This was as bad a game as the goalless score suggests with neither team making much impression. The 700 travelling supporters were short changed as their team created little in the way of chances, with Scott Thomson's free-kick that McKenzie tipped round the post, a rare effort. Livi hit the crossbar with ten minutes remaining and Pasquinelli missed when he really should have scored. Other than that, this was very forgettable fare. | |||||
| Pos | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| 3 | Hearts | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 14 |
| 4 | Dunfermline Ath | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 12 |
| 5 | Dundee | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 11 |
| Manager Jimmy Calderwood's post match analysis was short and to the point: "Awful. You can't add anymore. The only plus point was that we got a draw. That was on our performance and I would think of the game also." |
| The Pars' Under 21 team draws 1-1 at a rain soaked EEP against Livingston. Billy Mehmet scores a beauty to put the Pars back on level terms. |
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Frenchman David Grondin has been hit by a bizarre injury. He was expected to play at Livingston after his performance against Partick Thistle, but woke up on the morning of the game with a poisoned toe. |
| With Lithuania playing Scotland at Hampden, their Under 19 team played the Pars Under 19s at EEP. The visitors won by three goals to one. Derek Hunter scored for Dunfermline. |
| Pars striker Stevie Crawford plays the full 90 minutes as Scotland beat Lithuania 1-0 to qualify for a Euro 2004 play-off against Holland. Stevie is involved in the play leading up to Darren Fletcher's goal. Unfortunately for Pars supporters, Andrius Skerla remained on the Lithuanian bench throughout the game |
| The Under 21 team play their outstanding game against Hibernian at Easter Road and win 2-0. Both goals are scored by Lee Bullen. |
| The Motherwell game is moved from Saturday 25 October to Tuesday 25th November. This is because Motherwell have three first team regulars in the Scotland Under 19 squad to play the Faroe Islands at Somerset Park Ayr on the day that the game was originally scheduled to be played. |
| Date: | 18th October 2003 | Opposition: | Kilmarnock | Score (H/T): | 2-3 (1-1) |
| Competition: | Sc Premier League | Venue | East End Park | Attendance: | 4,495 |
| Scorers: | [0-1] McSwegan (25), [1-1] Crawford (27), [2-1] Crawford (55), [2-2] Shields (69), [2-3] McSwegan (84) | ||||
| Yellow Cards: | None | ||||
| Pars Team: | Stillie, Thomson, Skerla, Wilson, Grondin (Bullen 64); Nicholson, Darren Young, Mason, Kilgannon; Crawford, Brewster. Subs not used: Ruitenbeek, Dempsey, McNichol, Mehmet | ||||
| Kilmarnock: | Dubourdeau, McLaughlin, Shields, Hessey; Fowler, Dodds (McDonald 78), Fulton, Invincible (Murray 66), Dillon, McSwegan, Boyd. Subs not used: Meldrum, Nish, Hay | ||||
| Referee: | C Murray | ||||
| How Dunfermline managed to lose this game after creating enough chances to win three games is anyone's guess. In the first twenty minutes the Pars could easily have been at least three goals to the good, with Stevie Crawford the main offender. As often happens, DA were made to pay for their lack of prowess in front of goals when Killie took the lead. Gary McSwegan smacked the ball home from the edge of the box. Crawford made amends for his misses almost immediately when he shot past Dubourdeau, who seemed to jump out of the way. Grondin had a further opportunity to put the Pars into the lead, but the Killie keeper did well to stop his shot. Ten minutes after the interval, Dunfermline took the lead when Crawford latched onto a through ball from Brewster, before turning and knocking the ball past Dubourdeau. To the displeasure of the home support, Grondin who had been having a good game was substituted and replaced by Lee Bullen. Five minutes later and former Par Greg Shields burst through the home defence to knock in his side's equaliser. With Dunfermline pressing for a winner, there was an air of inevitability as McSwegan ran through the defence to slot the ball past Stillie. Despite the defeat this was a good performance by the Pars, who had no poor performers in the side. | |||||
| Pos | Pld | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| 6 | Motherwell | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 13 |
| 7 | Dunfermline Ath | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 8 | Hibernian | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 11 |
| After the match, Manager Calderwood was left to rue the chances that his side missed, saying, "all credit to Kilmarnock they were very well organised, but the game should have been finished a long time before that. They had four chances and scored three; we probably had 14 if not more than that and scored two." |
| The Under 21 team continued their fine form with a 2-1 win against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Lee Bullen and Scott McNicol were the scorers. |
| Barry Nicholson is the only one of the three Dunfermline players selected for the Scotland Future Squad to play against Germany. Derek Stillie and Scott Wilson spent the match on the bench as Scotland went down 1-0. |
| Manager Calderwood has expressed his concern at the small crowds attending East End Park. The game against Kilmarnock attracted just 4495 spectators. |
| Andrew Gillies resigns after ten years service on the Athletic's board of directors. |
| 19 year old ex Everton defender, David Carney is invited back for a second trial after impressing JC after an initial week at EEP. |
| Following the resignation of Northern Ireland coach Sammy McIlroy, Pars Assistant Head Coach Jimmy Nicholl is tipped as one of the favourites to take over the job. |
| Date: | 28th October 2003 | Opposition: | St Johnstone | Score (H/T): | 2-3 (0-1) |
| Competition: | CIS League Cup | Venue | McDiarmid Park | Attendance: | 2,769 |
| Scorers: | [0-1] Donnelly (9), [0-2] Dods (70), [0-3] MacDonald (73), [1-3] Crawford (80), [2-3] Darren Young (83) | ||||
| Yellow Cards: | J Robertson (St J) | ||||
| Pars Team: | Stillie, Bullen (Dempsey 67), Wilson, Thomson, Grondin (Mehmet 73), Nicholson, Darren Young, Mason, Kilgannon (Labonte HT), Crawford, Brewster. Subs not used: Ruitenbeek, Byrne | ||||
| St Johnstone: | Cuthbert; J. Robertson, Forsyth, Bernard, Dods, Maxwell, MacDonald (Hay 80), M. Robertson, Parker, Donnelly, McLaughlin (Malone 83) Subs not used: Nelson, Paatelainen, Stevenson | ||||
| Referee: | J Underhill | ||||
| This was a gutless performance by Dunfermline that saw them outplayed and outfought by their First Division opponents. The rot set in with less than ten minutes played, when keeper Derek Stillie attempted to clear a long ball but managed to head it into the path of ex-Celtic player Simon Donnelly. Donnelly kept his composure and lobbed the ball over the retreating keeper and into the net. For the remainder of the half the Pars were restricted to a couple of off target long range efforts. The second half effort was slightly better and there were claims for a penalty after Crawford appeared to be tripped in the box, but referee Underhill waved play-on. The Saints then went two up when Dods rose unchallenged to head home a corner. The game was put beyond the Pars three minutes later when the ball fell to MacDonald who had plenty of time to slip the ball past Stillie. Then amazingly there was a mini revival as a Crawford dipping shot from outside the box landed in the back of the net with ten minutes remaining. Darren Young then raised the sizable travelling support's hopes with a tremendous shot that rasped into the goal, but any thoughts of a super comeback were in vain as the expected onslaught on the Saints goal failed to materialise. | |||||
| An angry Jimmy Calderwood said after the game, "You can warn and warn players how difficult a game is going to be but, sometimes, they take no notice. We were out-fought, our passing and movement was poor and we hardly made a tackle. I suspect some of the players don't know how important the CIS Cup is to teams like Dunfermline because we'll have lost a lot of money because of this defeat. If you are unlucky and you go out you can just about accept that, but too many players shirked their responsibilities and waved the white flag tonight." |
| The Under 21s drew 0-0 with Motherwell at East End Park. New signing Andy McDermott impressed with a commanding performance. |
| 19 year old Australian left sided defender David Carney who returned for a second trial period at East End Park, has left after failing to impress JC in Wednesday's Under 21 game |
| The Daily Record reports that Dunfermline have been plunged into a cash flow crisis primarily as a result of a late payment of a grant from UEFA for the laying the plastic pitch. As a result players did not receive appearance or win bonuses in their monthly pay cheques. However rather than being the crisis that the paper makes out it appears that this is a temporary problem that should be sorted when the players receive their pay at the end of November. Neither chairman John Yorkston, manager Jimmy Calderwood or the players seem concerned by the fuss. That doesn't stop a media frenzy from breaking out at EEP on the Friday. |
| Following the poor performance at McDiarmid Park several players pay the price and are dropped from the squad to face Dundee United at EEP. Grondin, Bullen and Kilgannon are all excluded, to be replaced by new signing Andy McDermott, Gary Dempsey and Andrius Skerla. Long term injury victims Derek Young, Andy Tod and Noel Hunt continue to sit on the sidelines, although Hunt is back training. |
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