Dunfermline

Once a hero in these parts, the jewel in the crown of Steven Pressley’s free-flowing Bairns ensemble, Kallum Higginbotham’s every touch was mercilessly jeered at the Falkirk Stadium, but the Dunfermline playmaker effectively silenced his detractors as he inspired the Pars to a 2-1 triumph.

In what was almost a play-off for a Championship promotion play-off spot Dunfermline made what could be a significant move, securing three points against fellow contenders Queen of the South thanks to a Nicky Clark hat-trick. With Dundee United allowing victory to squirm from their grasp in Greenock it enabled Allan Johnson’s side move into the all important top four for the time being at least.

Dundee United boss Csaba Laszlo has said he wants to “kill” Bilel Mohsni over an error which saw Dunfermline take the lead at Tannadice on Saturday.

Having spent two years in the City of Discovery, Dunfermline centre-back Callum Morris is no stranger to the demands of the Dundee United support. However, even he was taken aback by the subdued nature of the Tannadice crowd during
Saturday’s 1-1 draw in the 
Ladbrokes Championship.

They’ve signed Bilel Mohsni. They’ve added Paul Sturrock to the coaching staff. But there appears to be no quick-fix for Dundee United’s on-field troubles after Csaba Laszlo’s floundering side were held at home to fellow promotion hopefuls Dunfermline.

A Nicky Clark hat-trick sent Dunfermline to within a point of fourth place and rekindled their play-off hopes as Brechin slipped ever closer to their inevitable relegation.

When the observation is put to him that he is among the most influential people in Scottish football over the last 20 years, if not the most influential, Bryan Jackson coughs, splutters, then accepts the compliment with good grace.

How the hardy souls watching this game at East End Park yesterday were made to suffer – and that wasn’t just because of the near Arctic conditions. A paucity of entertainment and incident would have had most shuddering even in T-shirt weather and only in the closing stages did the hosts come remotely close to achieving their objective of closing the four-point gap separating themselves from Morton and the final Championship promotion play-off spot.

Whether it was Dragoje Lekovic’s yellow checkerboard, or Nicky Walker’s broken kaleidoscope effort, there were a great many eye-catching goalie kits around Scottish football in the Nineties.

No Morgan, no problem for St Mirren as they returned to form with an ultimately easy and convincing win over Dunfermline despite being without their talismanic winger due to a bout of tonsillitis.

An uninspiring goalless draw was of little benefit to either of these sides who have fallen five points adrift of the play-off positions.

A last-gasp strike from Gary Oliver gave Morton a win manager Jim Duffy admitted they hardly deserved and saw them leapfrog Dunfermline 
to claim a place in the top 
four.

Here is a list of all the transfer day deadline days which have been confirmed.

Two men have been charged after plastic eyeballs were thrown on a pitch during a football match.

Lewis Morgan further enhanced his burgeoning 
reputation as his moment of genius helped St Mirren tighten their grip at the summit of the Championship with a breathless 2-1 triumph against Dunfermline.

It is not as if Dunfermline had not been warned, but for the second time this season Jai Quitongo proved the match-winner for Morton with a late and dramatic winner.

If Dundee United are searching for positives in light of their third game in four without a victory, a run that has seen them drop eight points behind league leaders St Mirren, they could do worse than find inspiration from the recent turnaround in fortunes enjoyed by Saturday’s hosts.

The short, sharp burst of boos from the travelling support which immediately greeted the full-time whistle would tell you that a 0-0 draw away to Dunfermline was not the result Dundee United fans were looking for following last weekend’s horrendous 6-1 loss in Falkirk.

The play-off places at either end of the Championship table were uppermost in both these sides’ minds going into this game and a majestic first-half strike by Joe Cardle was enough to ensure it was Dunfermline whose hopes of being in the mix for the head to heads for promotion that were reinforced.