Pars are finally on up again and back in fashion
It’s a lesser known fact that the face at the top of this column was once used to promote a wellknown fashion brand. Hard to believe I know. The vintage hairstyle, a bit like Dunfermline, we were both en vogue back in the day.
Catwalk colleague
Ian Broadfoot isn’t just a pretty face – as a Pars fanatic he was an East End Park regular back in the 1990s.
Game day with his dad and a group of mates, they’d congregate at the same place every week, the terracing in the left hand corner looking across from the main stand. Sadly, like so many, no more.
The introduction of all-seated stadia following Hillsborough put paid to that.
For him it was never the same. That terracing tradition before a few post-match pints.
Their Dunfermline to a degree doesn’t exist anymore. It has been a club in top-flight exile for far too long.
Administration, relegations, financially induced points deductions and the running into the ground by Gavin Masterton all resulted in a devastating era for the club. It has been closely documented by this writer who was a regular in Fife to report on the latest saga, staving off liquidation and wages not being paid.
Anyone who has been around the game a long time will testify to just how great this club used to be.
But the truth is it has been under crisis management for decades.
There was one memorable visit to Halbeath Road after an invitation from the legend that is Jim Leishman.
The pitch had been ripped up and replaced by a plastic surface and Leish attempted to talk up its merits and the financial benefits of giving the public access to their pitch.
He knew it was a desecration of sacred ground. Another owngoal which cost his beloved club so much more than grass. Like
Falkirk, Dunfermline have fallen down a dark hole, League One demeans them in terms of their pedigree and history of achievements in the game.
There’s a generation growing up not knowing about the glory and the rich history.
Lower-league football can be an abyss, if you are absent from the top flight for too long then there’s a tendency to shrink. Just ask Clyde.
I played against the Pars at East End Park for Clyde in the final game of the 199394 season when they had to win to have a hope of winning the First Division title.
A crowd of 6163 saw George O’Boyle net four in a 5-0 win – but it wasn’t enough. Falkirk pipped them to the title by a point but at the final whistle the fans still invaded the pitch.
It’s almost a decade to the day that I was sent to cover what many believed was the Pars’ Doomsday game against Dumbarton.
On life support, even Big Leish admitted it could have been the end of the road.
There was no pitch invasion that afternoon, just one fan with a banner depicting Masterton as an ass and the word ‘SKINT’.
Our game is littered with people who indulge in self-interest at the expense of the clubs they claim to support.
It’s great to see Pars on an upward trajectory for a change under a talented young manager as a relative giant threatens a return to better times as it comes back into fashion.
There’s a generation growing up unaware of the glory and rich history