Pars can’t beat the Blues after blowing lead
Dunfermline 2 Peterhead 2
IF YOU had pitched the story of this match to the makers of old TV programme Tales of the Unexpected, even they would have dismissed it as too outlandish and unbelievable.
Quite how table-topping Dunfermline blew a two-goal lead with six minutes left on the clock, to a team at the bottom of the league that had only managed one meaningful shot to that point, was just baffling.
You had to see it to believe it, and then still pinch yourself and check that they really had just tossed away two points in such a jaw-droppingly reckless manner.
When Nikolay Todorov arrived at the back post to side-foot Josh Edward’s cross into the net in the 84th minute, adding to Rhys Breen’s earlier effort, it put the Pars 2-0 up and everyone assumed it was all over bar the shouting.
Peterhead probably did too but they managed to get a goal back straightaway – a lucky break as Kyle Benedictus won a tackle but the ball smacked off Breen and fell kindly for Jason Brown to net.
That should just have been a consolation as Dunfermline saw the match out but, instead, the home team panicked and continued to offer their opponents the chance to push everyone up and shell the ball into the box.
They got away with one but in the fourth minute of added time they were punished, giving away another needless free kick that Andy McDonald pumped into the area and Mike Hewitt did the rest, leaping amid a crowd of jerseys to send an admittedly great header arcing into the far corner of the net.
You just didn’t see it coming. The Blue Toon only had one decent effort before then, a real blast from the past as ex-Par Ryan Dow’s 30-yard free kick bounced off the bar, and seemed like they needed a map to find a way into
Dunfermline’s half, so rarely did they venture there.
Pars boss James McPake was understandably seething, he said they’d been rotten all game but must have been getting ready to dust off the old ‘We weren’t at our best but we take the three points and move on’ line.
It’s far from a crisis.
They’re still top of the table and remain the only unbeaten team in
Scotland with the best defensive record in the league – they’ve now conceded four goals from eight matches – but it’s at the other end where there’s a problem.
Only Montrose, Kelty and Peterhead have hit fewer goals than the Pars and here they failed continually to dirty the gloves of Blue Toon goalkeeper Tom Ritchie.
They hadn’t played for two weeks, since the match against Falkirk, but McPake didn’t accept rustiness as any kind of excuse.
It took Athletic 20 minutes to do anything noteworthy, Chris Mochrie’s clever disguised pass allowed Edwards to race into the box.
The full back should have pulled the trigger but hesitated, tried to find a team-mate instead and had to settle eventually for earning a corner.
In the first half, Todorov had three efforts that went wide, Breen headed past the post – albeit under pressure – and, after the break, Lewis McCann fired over wastefully from inside the box.
Joe Chalmers missed the target twice and even Mochrie, the standout player on the pitch, couldn’t cap his fine performance with a goal and failed to trouble the goalie with two of his three potshots.
All told, there were 11 efforts that Ritchie didn’t have to bother about.
It took a centre back to break the deadlock, Peterhead couldn’t clear Edwards’ deep cross and Breen swivelled to bundle the ball home for an untidy opener, and another excellent delivery from the assist king found Todorov for what should have been the clincher.
The Pars will still be scratching their heads as to why it wasn’t.