Tod’s treble tops to seal Youth Cup progress
HAT-TRICK hero Andrew Tod said that helping the Pars to Youth Cup victory was “different class” as it took place at East End.
The son of Athletic legend Andy collected the match ball last Friday evening as Greg Shields’ team came back from a goal down to defeat Greenock Morton 5-1 in the second round.
Gerrard Stevenson gave the visitors the lead but, after Raymond Reddington forced the tie into extra time, Liam Hoggan put Dunfermline ahead.
Tod, who was joined in the side by his younger brother Jon, 15, then became the star of the show, scoring three times to complete the hosts’ success.
The 16-year-old, who made substitute appearances for the first team in Premier Sports Cup wins over East Fife and Buckie Thistle earlier in the season, was watched by his family, and humbly said that winning the match was more important than his personal achievement.
“After training at Rosyth coming here is so much different,” he said afterwards.
“The pitch is slick and like a carpet. The fans stuck by us, even at 1-0 down they were still cheering and when we scored it made it just even better in front of family and friends.
“The result made playing here different class. It makes everyone love it; it is just so good.”
On his quick-fire treble, he continued: “To be fair, I didn’t have to do much to score them.
“Apart from the last one they were team goals; I just tucked that one away in the corner. It is not about the goals for me, it is just about winning and getting through to the next round.
“It was tight with a setpiece goal first half but we came out and we were much better in the second half. We got the goal and the game just fizzled out to go into extra time.
“Then we just found another level, we just stuck together, fought for everything and got the goals in the end.”
Tod was back in action on Tuesday when the Pars took on Dundee United, refereed by ex-Par, Sean Murdoch, in their second Reserve League Cup fixture.
Having already beaten Livingston, a young side captained by Kyle MacDonald, and also featuring Kane Ritchie-Hosler, held a more experienced Terrors side to a scoreless draw.
A penalty shoot-out then took place to determine the winners of a bonus point, with Tod’s cute chip down the middle sealing it for the Pars by a 5-3 margin.