DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC 5 COWDENBEATH 1

Saturday1st August 2015, League Cup First Round, crowd - 2756.

 

For the second successive week we were in Fife derby action as we made the short trip to East End Park.

The game was never going to reach the euphoria of our last visit to our neighbours but the 276 travelling fans who headed west wouldn’t have been expecting such a heavy defeat.

Colin Nish made one change to his starting line as he faced his old side with Lewis Milne coming in for Chris Kane.

 

The Pars went into the match in a confident mood after a good win at Arbroath the previous week and they thought that they had taken the lead with five minutes gone when El Bakhtaoui had the ball in the net but was ruled offside.

After a blank opening 45 minutes it took only three minutes of the second half for the Pars to take the lead when Cardle set up Fayssal EL BAKHTAOUI who held off John Armstrong before firing low into the net.

 

Nine minutes later we found ourselves two down when Shaun BYRNE made a penetrating run and fired home from just inside the box.

However two minutes later we managed to get back into the game when Spence held the ball up and it bounced perfectly to Declan HUGHES who fired an un-saveable drive past Murdoch.

We threatened again through Johnston but with 18 minutes to go keeper Andrews brought down Wallace in the box and was red carded.

Sneddon replaced Johnston to take over in goal for his debut, the seventh player to make their bow for us this season.

 

Ryan WALLACE then stepped up to take the resultant spot kick himself and from there on it was damage limitation.

However the Pars added two further goals, in 78 minutes Paton made a chance for BYRNE to head home his second of the afternoon with Sneddon stranded and in the last minute EL BAKHTAOUI won the ball 25 yards out before running through to shoot past Sneddon.

 

TEAM: Michael Andrews, Dean Brett, Mo Yaqub, John Armstrong, Brad Donaldson, Lewis Milne, Sam Orritt (Chris Kane 24), Declan Hughes, Greig Spence, Luke Armstrong (Colin Nish 61) & Craig Johnston (Jamie Sneddon 73). Subs not used – Kyle Miller, Liam Callaghan, Pat Scullion & Jack Wright.

Bookings: Johnston (30), Kane (68).

Sent off: Andrews (72).

 

DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC: Sean Murdoch, Ryan Williamson, Lewis Martin, Callum Fordyce, Ben Richards-Everton, Andy Geggan, Michael Paton, Shaun Byrne (Josh Falkingham 79), Michael Moffat (Ryan Wallace 66), Fayssal El Bakhtaoui & Joe Cardle (David Hopkirk 77). Subs not used – Lewis Spence, James Thomas, John Potter & David Hutton.

 

Goals: El Bakhtaoui (49, 90), Byrne (56, 78), Wallace (pen 74).

 

REFEREE: Mr George Salmond.