Mcpake pleased after Pars hit Loons for six in impressive display

The new Station Park playing surface was christened with an emphatic friendly victory for Dunfermline over hosts Forfar Athletic.

The full-time outfit showed the gulf between the sides at this early stage of pre-season preparation as they hit the Loons for six. The Pars started the brighter of the sides and almost had the lead in the third minute. Rhys Breen got his head to a corner but was denied by Tomas Brindley on the line.

The Fifers did get themselves in front in the 17th minute however. A high press forced a loose pass in defence and Kevin O’hara capitalised ruthlessly by rifling home from north of 20 yards.

Dunfermline looked sharp and doubled their advantage just nine minutes later. A halfcleared cross was latched on to by Lewis Mccann and the youngster did brilliantly to squeeze his effort in at the near post.

James Mcpake’s outfit’s superior sharpness was seriously telling by the time they made it three. Mathew Todd connected to a floated corner at the edge of the box and he fired a volley low into the net.

Forfar made six changes at the interval and it initially looked to have given them a foot in the match but they were four down just 11 minutes in. A quick counter by Breen and O’hara saw the latter slot underneath Mccallum for his second.

The League One side were putting on a show and they made it five when 18-year-old substitute Miller Fenton latched on to Nikolay Todorov’s through ball and steered home past sub goalie Lewis Sanderson.

By now it looked like it could have been any score that Mcpake’s men wanted and five minutes from time, Todorov made it six with a cultured header at the back post. The Bulgarian’s goal rounded off an impressive pre-season showing from the Fife outfit that pleased Mcpake.

“Score lines don’t matter at this point, it’s a cliche but it’s true,” he said.

“What does matter is the manner of the performance and the hard work. The boys were tired, they’ve been training very hard but we were so sharp from the off and it shows we can work when we are tired. The performances are what drive good results and that was a very good performance.”

Forfar manager Gary Irvine said: “Coming from a game, conceding a few goals and a few sloppy goals at that, is disappointing but it’s minutes in the legs for the boys and that’s all it was supposed to be tonight.”