Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Luck in at East End as Dee get away with point
DUNDEE’S luck was i n as they opened t he i r Championship campaign at East End Park with a point courtesy of two spot-kicks from new signing Danny Johnson.
A vibrant and pacey Dunfermline side will have wondered how they didn’t kick off the season with three points on Friday night.
James McPake’s side, though, showed they have some fight about them as they responded after a dreadful opening 45 minutes to level things up after being two goals behind shortly before half-time.
They had two controversial penalty decisions from referee Greg Aitken go in their favour and took advantage through Johnson’s confident strikes from the spot to gather a point from a day they barely deserved anything.
In fact, had the excellent Pars pairing of former Dundee United man Ryan Dow and new boy Kevin Nisbet taken all of their chances it could well have been an embarrassing start to the season for the Dark Blues.
In his first league match as full-time boss, McPake stuck with the line-up and starting XI that played so well against Inverness CT the previous Sunday.
Quickly, though, it was clear that Dunfermline were going to be a far different prospect on their own turf than Caley Thistle were at Dens.
Dundee did have the best chance in the opening period as skipper Josh Meekings powered a header goalwards, bringing a good save from Ryan Scully.
However, it was all about the Pars for the vast majority of the opening 45 minutes at East End Park.
Dundee started the match slackly with little movement and struggled to keep up with the speed of the Pars attack. That was completely summed up in the opening goal after 13 minutes.
Cammy Kerr’s poor pass back down the line put new boy Jordon Forster in trouble with former Raith marksman Nisbet buzzing around.
There was a chance to play it back to goalkeeper Jack Hamilton or just shell it out for a throw, however, Forster made the wrong choice of trying to come away with the ball and Nisbet pounced.
The defence was wide open and the forward rolled it to Dow to fire home.