By Jim Davie

DUNFERMLINE FANS must now fear the worst for their team after a third successive blank in the goalscoring department.

If goals do not come in their final three games, two of which are away from home, then the Pars face the inevitable drop down to the first division.

But where are they to come from?

On Saturday, against then bottom dogs Livingston, manager Davie Hay went with Simon Donnelly and former West Ham youngster Billy Mehmet up front, but neither looked like solving the season-long problem.

Early in the second half skipper Scott Thomson was pushed into a forward role but he, too, failed to make any real impact.

Then on came Georgi Hristov, but the misfiring Macedonian managed to miss the best chance of all in the dying minutes when a Gabor Vincze slip let him in.

It doesn’t look good for the Fifers and they now face another crunch game on Saturday against Dundee at East End Park.

It’s a game they must win, but they must find goals from somewhere if they are to do so.

Once again, injury hit Hay’s selection. With Derek Young ruled out, it left the door open for Lee Makel to return from a cartilage operation.

The large army of visiting fans were in good voice early on, with general manager Jim Leishman stirring them up with a Sam Hammam-type walkabout.

And their side started determinedly enough, forcing Livingston back in the early stages.

Darren Young had a 30-yard rasper saved by Livi keeper Roddy McKenzie and Mehmet headed just wide as the visitors took the game to their hosts.

But with Hassan Kachloul and half-Scot, half-South African Burton O’Brien showing their class, it wasn’t long before Richard Gough’s side worked their way back into the game.

The Pars found themselves trailing after 32 minutes when O’Brien raced on to a beautiful through ball from Colin McMenamin to place it behind Derek Stillie.

Down 1-0 at half-time Dunfermline came out fighting in the second period though their vociferous fans were not amused by their manager’s next move, which was to replace Noel Hunt with Aaron Labonte.

Taking off an attacking player and throwing on a defensive one is not usually a sure-fire route to success when you’re a goal behind, but Hay’s masterplan also included pushing Thomson up to try to add some firepower.

With Makel pulling the strings in midfield there was still hope that the Pars could somehow find a way through a Livi defence happy to sit back and soak up the pressure.

But hopes were extinguished 15 minutes from time when substitute James McPake, on for the tiring Kachloul, got a touch to an O’Brien corner to send the ball past Stillie and wrap up the points.

At this point the visiting fans became even more vocal, but this time they directed their comments at their manager.

It couldn’t have been pleasant for Hay, whose side show a willingness to battle and who play some neat football, attributes that are unfortunately negated by their inability to punish the opposition where it really hurts.

It’s ground that the Pars manager has gone over time and time again.

“We have tried every possible combination,” he bemoaned.

“It is all very well putting the ball in the net at training, but it comes to nothing if you don’t do it on match days.

Responding to the criticism aimed at him from a section of Dunfermline fans, Hay commented, “As a manager it goes with the territory. You have a team that did well last season and probably for different reasons this season have obviously not done as well, so you get frustration from fans. They pay their money, they can shout as they wish.

“You have to respond to the fans by the way you play on the park. The way you do that is to win games.

“The fans were decent for the bulk of the game. They react accordingly at the end through frustration.”

Now faced with three games to save a horrendous season, Hay revealed he was up for the fight ahead.

“If it’s a sinking ship the captain stays on to the end,” he said. “You don’t shoot the crow and leave the rest to sink. You make sure it doesn’t sink.

“It really means next week’s game is a vitally important match, one I would say is a ‘must win’ game. If we don’t the consequences will be dire.

“I think it is a win or bust game next week.”

Opposite number Gough was naturally delighted by his side’s continuing good form.

“We have two very hard away games coming up so we had to give ourselves a wee bit of breathing space.

“The boys did themselves proud today, they played very well.”