Dunfermline winger Willie Gibson has revealed the main reason he rejected a move to English outfit Crawley Town was down to his fiancee.
The former Kilmarnock player was the subject of what appeared to be an audacious bid of £150,000 on Monday.
Gibson, who was instrumental in Dunfermline eventually overcoming Morton 2-0 on Saturday, told Courier Sport that the Blue Square Premier League side had actually offered a considerable signing-on fee and an attractive salary.
However, after discussing the matter with his fiancee Melanie, he decided that he would remain at East End Park and try to help the Pars win the Scottish first division.
“I didn’t know anything about it,”he said. “The manager phoned me and asked me to go up to his house on Monday afternoon as the club had received an offer and they had accepted it so he wanted to talk to me.
“My fiancee, Melanie, is a teacher at Stirling High School and has her first full-time job, which starts on Monday. We’re getting married next year and I’ve got two young children who I only see at the weekends so it would be a major decision to go down there.
“No disrespect to Crawley, I reckon they are a good club to be at, but I came here from Killie to help Dunfermline gain promotion and I don’t feel that job is done yet. So hopefully this season will be the one we can do it.”
He continued, “It was a lot better money to go down there. You had to weigh up everything as the basic salary was a lot more than what I’m on here and the signing-on fee was incredible for a club like that.
“But money is not everything and Melanie’s job did come into it, but I feel we have a good club here and I want to do well here.
“Every player will have a price on their head and the £150,000 was too good for the board to turn down but it wasn’t right for me.”
Dunfermline won the game despite not being at their best with Morton surprisingly dominating possession but lacking the vital cutting edge required to take the points.
The impressive Michael Tidser showed how dangerous the Greenock side could be when he fired an inviting shot across the face of the Pars goal after only three minutes.
Much of the first-half was dominated by midfield play and Morton again threatened after 35 minutes when a good move involving Kevin McKinlay, Carlo Monti and former Par Graeme Holmes ended with the midfielder shooting wide.
The away side should have taken the lead three minutes later when Marc Smyth passed to Monti and the winger crossed to Peter Weatherson who headed across the goal.
The second half continued in much the same vein but it was Dunfermline who took the lead after 76 minutes.
Gibson passed to right-back Calum Woods whose misfired shot was parried by Colin Stewart into the path of Andy Kirk who took no time crashing the rebound into the net.
The goal totally galvanised Dunfermline and knocked the stuffing out of Morton and Kirk doubled his tally with eight minutes remaining.
David Graham had been fouled and Joe Cardle curled the resultant free-kick right on to Kirk’s head and the Northern Ireland international bulleted the ball home.
Pars boss Jim McIntyre admitted his team had not played well but acknowledged Kirk’s finishing made the difference between the two teams.
“We didn’t play well- Morton were sharper and we had our defenders to thank. The difference was the finish and we had that in our team.”
Morton manager Allan Moore said he felt his side had been “mugged.”
“Our quality in the box was poor,” he said.