Dunfermline 1-4 Morton: Morton cash in on poor Pars

Published on 24/02/2013 03:05

A week of grim news off the field for Dunfermline ended with a thoroughly dispiriting 90 minutes on it, with this comprehensive defeat surely extinguishing their promotion hopes.

At the same time, it also all but ensured that the race for the SPL is now a two-horse affair between yesterday’s victors Morton and closest rivals Partick Thistle.

Stories of the current financial plight of the Fifers have swirled like a chill blast around East End Park in the last few days and with latest reports indicating that their players may be about to make a formal complaint to the Scottish Football League over unpaid wages, it seems there may be little respite in the offing.

Speaking after the game, Dunfermline manager Jim Jefferies confirmed the current position among his squad. “The players have never shouted about things or let it affect them at training.

“They have frustrations and they want it resolved. They’ve gone about raising things through the right channels and the players’ union is giving them advice – they’re not coming in here and holding a gun to anyone’s head.”

For 45 minutes, those same players brushed aside any questions about their commitment to the club by putting in a spirited performance that should have seen them go in at the interval at the very least on level terms rather than trailing to a Peter MacDonald penalty.

A number of promising opportunities came their way and was best summed up by a lovely piece of skill by Ryan Thomson just inside the Morton box when he smacked a wonderful volley goalwards only for Derek Gaston to match it with a save of the highest quality.

The visitors initially struggled to build any momentum on the heavily sanded surface but they got a real break just after the half hour mark when Callum Morris was penalised for a challenge on Willie Dyer in his own box. MacDonald drove the ball low and hard and it clipped the inside of the post before rolling into the opposite corner of the net.

Incensed at the further misfortune visited upon them, the Dunfermline players took out their wrath at referee Craig Charleston in some heated exchanges. However, shortly afterwards, the Fifers only had themselves to blame as Charleston evened matters up with another contentious penalty award when Joe Cardle went down in the Morton box. Andy Barrowman thundered the penalty at goal but the ball hit the crossbar and was walloped to safety.

If the first half was all about the Pars more than matching their opponents, the second was, unfortunately for them, simply a case of the roof falling in.

Within five minutes of the restart, the game was as good as over as Michael Tidser beat Paul Gallagher from 30 yards and then MacDonald got his brace as he headed in a superb Tidser cross from close range.
The spirit was well and truly sucked out of the hosts after this and Morton proceeded to take them apart with a ruthlessness that merely emphasised their championship credentials. Man of the match Tidser made his mark again with a fine volleyed finish in 64 minutes to make it four. This is turn was the cue for a fair number of anguished Pars fans to head for the exits meaning they missed Morris netting a late strike which fell strictly into the 
consolation category.

“We rode our luck with their 
penalty and huffed and puffed in the first half, but we got our goals at the right time and the second half performance was exceptional,” was the assessment of the contented Morton manager Allan Moore.