Dunfermline dumped out on East Fife’s glory night

Dunfermline’s impressive unbeaten opening to the new campaign unravelled in the most unexpected of circumstances as they were dumped out of the Scottish Communities League Cup by local rivals East Fife.

John Robertson’s Second Division outfit thoroughly deserved their moment of glory on a night when the consequences of the Pars’ slipshod performance will have concerned manager Jim McIntyre. The SPL side, who left out Andy Kirk, Martin Hardie, Gary Mason and Joe Cardle as McIntyre assessed his fringe players, began slowly and never really recovered.

Home forward Bobby Linn stunned the visitors with his fifth-minute opener and, although Liam Buchanan bundled in the equaliser shortly after, the Bayview men were not to be denied with Scott Dalziel’s winner capping a stirring second-half display.

East Fife got the breakthrough they wanted after just four minutes when Pars skipper Austin McCann mistimed his header to allow Dalziel to set Linn away. Although Paul Gallacher brilliantly stopped the winger’s first attempt there was nothing the Dunfermline keeper could do to keep out Linn’s 12-yard effort from the rebound.

With the visitors all at sea, Gallacher had to beat out another Linn effort after East Fife had worked a short corner on the left and it was to prove a crucial intervention as the Pars equalised after 12 minutes. Andy Barrowman held off Matthew Park as he raced onto a through ball and, when Michael Brown could only parry his low drive, Buchanan reacted quickest to bundle in from close range.

The interval arrived with the bulbs going out in one of the four floodlight columns, with some half-time remedial work restoring the illuminations but it was East Fife who powered their way into the lead 10 minutes after the restart.

Linn was the architect this time with a cross deep into the penalty area that was expertly chested down by Dalziel before the burly striker rifled his shot high into the roof of Gallacher’s net. The Pars were rocked by the goal and they could not recover enough to find an equaliser as Steve Hislop knocked Barrowman’s header off the line with almost the last touch of the ball.

East Fife: Brown; Durie, Ovenstone, Hislop, Park; Linn, Young, Smith, Johnstone; Wallace, Dalziel (Sloan 60). Subs not used: Collier, Brewster, Brown, Blaikie.

Dunfermline: Gallacher; J. Thomson, Rutkiewicz, Keddie, McCann; McDougall (Willis 55), Burns, Dowie (R. Thomson 62), Graham; Barrowman, Buchanan (Kirk 70). Subs not used: Smith, Boyle.

Referee: C Charleston

Attendance: 1,262