Andrew Barrowman’s 95th-minute winner completed a dramatic Dunfermline fightback and may prove to be a turning point for the Pars.
The victory could well have a massive positive impact on Dunfermline’s faltering season.
Title favourites at the start of the campaign, their stuttering progress led manager Jim Jefferies to fall on his sword in December, and his successor John Potter had not won at home until Saturday, and only scored his first win of any kind at Ayr the previous week.
Barrowman kick-started the revival, making it 2-1 deep into first-half stoppage time with his first goal for the club.
He might easily have had a hat-trick in the second period after missing a sitter, forcing Greg Fleming into a fine reflex save and then rattling the bar after Michael Moffat’s powder-puff penalty was parried.
Like all good strikers he sucked up his disappointment and kept “gambling”, positioning himself in the six-yard area waiting for the ball to come his way. As a result he was perfectly placed to tap home the winner as the clock edged towards 5pm.
There had been a palpable sense of deflation inside East End Park. Something sensational was required to lift the gloom, and central defender Kyle McAusland provided it with a piledriver from 30 yards.
That set up the dramatic injury-time finale.
Barrowman said: “At that late stage you’ve just got to hope that defenders get tired and make mistakes.
“My two goals were scored from a combined distance of about 10 yards, but they all count.
“I thought we deserved to win the game, and the atmosphere inside the dressing room afterwards was absolutely fantastic.
“We’ve got some good players here, but we’ve been lacking a bit of confidence, so this result will definitely help us with that.”