Saint and sinner Wighton emerges head man for Pars
Dunfermline boss Stevie Crawford hailed his side’s battling spirit as they came back from a COVID enforced layoff to take all three points and move back into second in the Championship table.
He said after the narrow home win over Morton, in which Craig Wighton missed a first-half penalty: “I’m delighted. Obviously, we have had a tough couple of weeks, but we have shown character.
“We have created chances and I thought we were dogged in our defending.
“I said to Craig Wighton in the dressing room that he was brave enough to take a penalty and the keeper’s saved it.
“He maybe isn’t happy with how he connected with the ball, but you have to keep putting yourself in positions – and he has done that.”
Talking of the only goal of the game, he added: “It was a great move. Scott Banks, on the front foot, steals it forward and passes to Dom Thomas. Then it’s a great delivery and, as all good strikers do, Craig is in that area to head home.
“We’ve missed playing, so the big positive was the performance. We didn’t look unfit as the game went on.
“There were probably players that weren’t feeling great, but we never showed it, which was crucial as Morton would have jumped on that.
“We looked like we would score goals and we closed the door.
“We were hurting after that Queen of the South game and we knew there was a chance to go above Raith.
“However, we had to show Morton respect as these have been very competitive games between us this season.
“I was delighted with the character we showed.”
This strength of character was personified none more so than by on-loan striker Wighton.
First, he would have a moment to forget 20 minutes in as he hit as tame a penalty as you are likely to see straight at Aidan Mcadams in the Morton goal.
The follow-up effort was then fantastically saved by Mcadams before the visitors cleared.
This undid the fantastic work the former Dundee and Hearts man had done in winning the kick, latching on to a Fraser Murray through ball before being bundled over by Mcadam.
Wighton was not to be denied, though, popping up with what would prove to be the difference between the sides just a minute before half-time.
A fluid Dunfermline move saw the ball work it’s way down the left to Dom Thomas, and his teasing cross found Wighton peeling off his marker to nod home from six yards out.
The second period saw the visitors come out in search of an equaliser.
Chances fell to substitute Gary Oliver, who glanced a header not far wide, and wide man Aidan Nesbitt, who ghosted in on the right-hand side before ballooning a shot over when he should have done so much better.
The home men were now content to hit on the break and they should have put the game to bed 75 minutes in.
Aaron Comrie and Scott Banks were both left wondering how they didn’t score with point-blank efforts that were blocked on the line by a mixture of Mcadam and the Morton backline.
As it was, this would not come back to haunt the Pars, leaving debutant Morton manager Gus Macpherson to muse afterwards: “You lose a game, so you are disappointed.
“It was evenly matched, but I’m reasonably pleased with how we competed.”