With just nine games of the season to go, Dunfermline sit bottom of the Championship.
A 1-0 defeat away to Arbroath, combined with Queen of the South winning their second game on the bounce, sent John Hughes’ side to the foot of the table.
The result was probably not what the Pars deserved as they enjoyed most of the ball and came close on a number of occasions but it just wasn’t to be on the day.
Courier Sport takes a look at three Dunfermline talking points from the Gayfield tussle.
Fan reaction
At full-time a minority of the travelling support were quite vocal towards their players and, in particular, manager John Hughes.
Gayfield has not been a happy hunting ground for the Pars this season.
The Dunfermline team bus is given a police escort out of Gayfield amid a small, but awfy angry, band of travelling Pars fans at the gates
This season has just gone so wrong
[Warning: some category A swears…]@thecouriersport report from Arbroath below 👇 https://t.co/7FxZZuqO7H pic.twitter.com/q0NwbUEUq8
— Alan Temple (@alanftemple) October 30, 2021
The last time the side visited the Angus coast, they had to have a police escort away from the ground after the 4-2 defeat – which turned out to be Peter Grant’s final game in charge.
In fact, any time they’ve faced Arbroath has been a bit if a disaster this campaign.
The Lichties have won four out of their four meetings with an 11-2 aggregate score.
On Saturday, the fans again made their voices heard following Hughes’ sixth defeat since taking over in November.
Their complaints were not as extreme as the last time, but they demand better from their team who who don’t have long to turn things around.
Decent Pars performance
It won’t really mean anything to the Dunfermline fans following a defeat which saw them go bottom but they didn’t play badly.
They had to be patient in their play.
Supporters became increasingly frustrated with the ball being played back fairly frequently but the side kept hold of possession well.
And when they did get through on goal they were inches away from scoring having hit the woodwork THREE times – Steven Lawless in each half and Kevin O’Hara in the first.
As John Hughes said post-match, they just didn’t “get the rub of the green”.
And it didn’t help that they were up against the toughest defence in the league.
Can they survive?
Dunfermline have only won four games in the league all season, which is clearly not good enough.
That has lead them to where they are today and now trail a resurgent Queen of the South side who have picked up seven points out of nine.
But on the basis of Saturday’s display, they look like a team that is ready for a fight and have the quality within them to get a result.
Another positive was the addition of Liam Polworth. He only got the final 10 minutes, but looked a good attacking addition to the midfield.
The side now have two huge games against Hamilton and then Morton next. Some kind of result in each of those could give them a fighting chance.
But it could all come down to the final game of the season at East End Park when they host the Doonhamers.
