[DAFC]

First ten minutes we were great, played some great stuff scored two nice goals from Hamilton and Burchil.
Livvy came into the game and had some nice play (and dives) on the touchlines.
Referee gave them absolutely everything, the worst challenges were on Pars players and should have seen at least two sending offs.
Livvy at one stage got a free kick for a challenge made by one of their own players?!

Hope Jim gets the job, totally different team now, have to say that the players didnt want to play for Kenny.
Very unprofessional.

[FFCinthearea]

Jim McIntyre is doing well. Do you think that he's a better manager than Kenny, or is he just commanding the respect of the players?

[Larbert_Par]

FFCinthearea, on Jan 2 2008, 20:12, said:

Jim McIntyre is doing well. Do you think that he's a better manager than Kenny, or is he just commanding the respect of the players?

Probably the latter.

Not pretty again today, but we won the game. There were 2 shocking tackles from Livi players in the second period which should've resulted in red cards. Overall, the officials were crap generally.

Not happy at how we sat back in the second half, but a good three points at a ground we normally have difficulty at. Dundee on Saturday is a hard one though.

[strathbrock]

FFCinthearea, on Jan 2 2008, 20:12, said:

Jim McIntyre is doing well. Do you think that he's a better manager than Kenny, or is he just commanding the respect of the players?

I think McIntyre is one of those managers who bring a touch of good fortune to a team. Big Eck is another one. They certainly seem to have ridden their luck in the last few games.

Pars first goal was the result of poor decision making by the linesman re Burchill offside. The second was a gift from a woeful Livi defence. After that Livi were not great but better than the Pars. Good goalkeeping from Gallagher and a shot off the post that could just as easily have gone in saved the game for them. McIntyre will probably get the job but there are sterner tests than Livi awaiting.

As for the officials they were awful to both teams. Murphy battered Makel's face right in front of the ref and got away scot free. Makel didn't recover enough to continue. The Pars players looked badly injured every time a tackle went in then recovered as soon as the foul was given. There was also quite blatant time wasting by Dunfermline during the whole of the second half yet not one minute of injury time was added.

By the way DAFC are you sure you're no just a wee bit biased?

[Larbert_Par]

strathbrock, on Jan 2 2008, 20:45, said:

I think McIntyre is one of those managers who bring a touch of good fortune to a team. Big Eck is another one. They certainly seem to have ridden their luck in the last few games.

Pars first goal was the result of poor decision making by the linesman re Burchill offside. The second was a gift from a woeful Livi defence. After that Livi were not great but better than the Pars. Good goalkeeping from Gallagher and a shot off the post that could just as easily have gone in saved the game for them. McIntyre will probably get the job but there are sterner tests than Livi awaiting.

As for the officials they were awful to both teams. Murphy battered Makel's face right in front of the ref and got away scot free. Makel didn't recover enough to continue. The Pars players looked badly injured every time a tackle went in then recovered as soon as the foul was given. There was also quite blatant time wasting by Dunfermline during the whole of the second half yet not one minute of injury time was added.

By the way DAFC are you sure you're no just a wee bit biased?

Ridiculous. The fact there was no stoppage time was laughable though. And where is this offside I keep seeing banded about?

And no wonder our players were injured when there were 2, possibly 3, occasions where a Livi player flew in with a 2 footed tackle which could have caused serious injury.

[LLD]

Larbert_Par, on Jan 2 2008, 21:08, said:

And no wonder our players were injured when there were 2, possibly 3, occasions where a Livi player flew in with a 2 footed tackle which could have caused serious injury.

I didn't see any two footed challenges, just a couple of mistimed one footed ones which were brought to book by the referee.

I don't honestly think Dunfermline can have any complaints about the officials. I actually don't think the referee had a bad game, although the linesman on the West Stand side was a clown.

[RiG]

Couple of questions:

1) Been mentioned here about Kenny and respect - why wouldn't the players respect Kenny?
2) Perhaps some of the players and now playing better simply for their futures as there could be changes afoot at the Pars with a new man in charge?

[Larbert_Par]

RiG, on Jan 2 2008, 22:45, said:

Couple of questions:

1) Been mentioned here about Kenny and respect - why wouldn't the players respect Kenny?
2) Perhaps some of the players and now playing better simply for their futures as there could be changes afoot at the Pars with a new man in charge?

1) God only knows.

2) Could be something in it.

Credit to McIntyre though- at least the team are working for each other now, which was again evident today. Not pretty, but they ground out another solid win against a team who reamed us 4-0 last time we met. A big improvement.

LLD- There were certainly a couple (the second which brought 2 successive bookings especially) which looked pretty damn reckless from where I was sitting. If contact had been made, a red card could easily have been dished out.

However, the officials were simply poor as I felt Livi had a couple of decent penalty shouts completely ignored in the second half.

[RiG]

Larbert_Par, on Jan 2 2008, 22:48, said:

1) God only knows.

2) Could be something in it.

I was hoping for at least a couple of paragraphs for each question. You disappoint me!

[Larbert_Par]

RiG, on Jan 2 2008, 22:51, said:

I was hoping for at least a couple of paragraphs for each question. You disappoint me!

I do apologise- im knackered from doing sod all

I've no idea what went on with Kenny. For some reason they weren't playing for him which enraged me as they quite obviously were last season. Whether we'll ever find out the truth of the matter, only time will tell.

And yes, a great number will be out of contract and may have been told to get their erses in gear or face being punted. Some of them are still not good enough IMO, but their attitude has improved. Simmons today for example played well- worked hard and generally had a decent game I felt in midfield. And I've slated him for being lazy and whatever.

Whether this is down to the change in management or the prospect of them perhaps being shown the East End exit, who knows. Im sure an announcement will be made in the coming days and I expect to then see movement in January.

The aim has to be to build a side capable of challenging next season.

[Hen Broon]

Decent game again spoiled by the ref & linesman. The ref strutted about like Napeleon . Great support for the Pars today . Best away support at Livi this season. We are now where you were a few weeks ago .

[Larbert_Par]

Hen Broon, on Jan 2 2008, 23:03, said:

Decent game again spoiled by the ref & linesman. The ref strutted about like Napeleon . Great support for the Pars today . Best away support at Livi this season. We are now where you were a few weeks ago .

Shows how quickly the league can change with a run of results.

Got any numbers for the Pars support there today? I thought it was a decent crowd of around the 1,000 mark.

[Dundee Par]

Thought we were pretty comfortable throughout. It's hard to believe how poor Livi were considering they played us off the park in our last game and deservedly humped us 4-0. We haven't exactly improved much since then.

Anyway, the game was pretty much over after the 1st 10 minutes. Livi had a couple of chances where they hit the post and Gallacher made a great save but apart from that they were reduced to long range efforts that ended up in the stands.

The ref I thought was ok in the 1st half but totally lost the plot in the 2nd. 2 horrible tackles from Livi players only resulted in yellows, Woods getting booked for being fouled by the Livi player , Murphy getting booked for clearly winning the ball and Burchill penalised for their defender running right through him after a great turn sending him away The chants of "You don't know what you're doing" have never been more apt.

Aside from that I was delighted with the win. Thought this would be a real test for McIntyre and I would have considered this the toughest game so far for him and we've come through it fairly easily. Can't really see past him for the job now and I think he deserves the chance.

[Larbert_Par]

Dundee Par, on Jan 2 2008, 23:05, said:

and Burchill penalised for their defender running right through him after a great turn sending him away The chants of "You don't know what you're doing" have never been more apt.

That one was the most ridiculous. Burchill sold the defender a fantastic dummy, resulting in him falling over, yet the linesman, standing a whole 5 yards away, awards a free-kick.

The officials were rotten today.

[strathbrock]

DAFC, on Jan 2 2008, 18:18, said:

Livvy came into the game and had some nice play (and dives) on the touchlines.
Referee gave them absolutely everything, the worst challenges were on Pars players and should have seen at least two sending offs.

Makel is off to hospital with a gash to his face and a black eye. Ref had a clear view of Murphy's challenge and did nothing. How many Pars players went off injured again? The ref was poor but both sides suffered.

[Livi]

DAFC, on Jan 2 2008, 18:18, said:

First ten minutes we were great, played some great stuff scored two nice goals from Hamilton and Burchil.
Livvy came into the game and had some nice play (and dives) on the touchlines.
Referee gave them absolutely everything, the worst challenges were on Pars players and should have seen at least two sending offs.
Livvy at one stage got a free kick for a challenge made by one of their own players?!

Hope Jim gets the job, totally different team now, have to say that the players didnt want to play for Kenny.
Very unprofessional.

Remind me which Pars player had to be taken to hospital...?

Makel had to be taken to hospital after the deliberate elbow in the nasher (which the ref and the clown on the line missed ) that caused a 4" cut.

I rest my case - ya clown

[Grant228]

you should be thanking Dunfermline that you wont have a choice to play makel...hes rubbish.

[Dundee Par]

Murphy also got clattered in the face right in front of us and the linesman. Nothing was done about that

And a couple of Pars players could have been in hospital if they hadn't managed to jump out of the way of the Livi tackles.

[Dafc-15]

Murphy also got elbowed in the ribs - i dont know if thats what you where talking about DundeePar ? He looked in pain anyway!

Very happy with the result - loved the first half but yet again we failed to do anything in the second. Glad our midfield done a better job defending without Glass - last week when he went off we where awful.

[SteamingparBoz]

makel deserved all he got after being the laziest player at East End Park in the clubs history.

Anyway another good win for us and great to see hammy back in amongst the goals and setting up the other, was well chuffed with that!

[Dundee Par]

Aye that was it DAFC-15. Just saw him getting hit out of the corner of my eye and thought it was the face.

And as you say, the midfield were better than last week in the 2nd half where they were non existant. I feared for us when they went to 5 across the middle and we had Crawford and Simmons in there!

This post has been edited by Dundee Par: 03 January 2008 - 00:45

[SteamingparBoz]

To be fair when they went 3-5-2 and we stayed 4-4-2 for a bit, Woods and Murphy did a lot of hard work in pushing forward to stifle their wide men.

[snorkie]

Dundee Par, on Jan 3 2008, 00:11, said:

Murphy also got clattered in the face right in front of us and the linesman. Nothing was done about that

And a couple of Pars players could have been in hospital if they hadn't managed to jump out of the way of the Livi tackles.

Clear attempt to try and get a Livi player sent off ,realised he was gettng no sympathy from the ref jumped up then ran about with nothing wrong.Can only assume it was Makel he had his problem with and dealt with it.
Well played yesterday you lot deserved to win took yer chances we did'nt

[The Chef]

I thought we were fairly comfortable yesterday. First half we played some great stuff until Livi changed it to a 3-5-2 and improved. We struggled a bit in the 2nd half although most of Livi's shots were from long range although Gallacher had a couple of good saves and a deflected shot which hit the post. Overall, IMO, we deserved the win for taking our chances if nothing else.

Officials were shocking once again, some baffling decisions at times which have already been highlighted in this thread.

Rumour at the game was that Butcher will be announced as the new gaffer today but I've a feeling it will be McIntyre. Performances haven't been great but you can't argue with his results.

[SmoothPar]

As we were sitting in the corner, me or my mate had a poor view of whether or not Burchill was offside for the goal so I can't really comment. With Hamilton and Burchill combining with each other for both goals, it seems that the partnership is beginning to gel, and not before time. Burchill especially, is looking much fitter, sharper and hungrier over the past month and looks like scoring every game.

Simmons and Crawford isn't the ideal central midfield partnership but both players tried to keep things simple and did an awful lot of closing down and work off the ball. Simmons had the better game of the two and I've been saying for a while that he is not as bad as some would have you believe. Crawford played some decent balls out wide to keep possession and when we did string some passes together, he looked more comfortable. Playing centre midfield means you sometimes just need to get rid of the ball though and try and get the defence turning and Crawford seems reluctant to just aimlessly kick for corners or into the channels. Probably something that has stuck because he rarely gave away possession when he was a striker.

The change to 3-5-2 was a sensible one as it allowed us to cope more comfortably with the long ball and Thomson could drop off a touch and sweep up behind as he did a few times. For me, Thomson and Harris can't be dropped to allow Wilson to return and Bamba has dropped right down to 4th choice for me. He has the potential to be so much better than Harris but Harris does the simple thing and rarely gets himself in trouble. Sometimes, hoofing the ball into the stand is the best plan. If Bamba had done that when we played Hamilton at home, it would have prevented three of their goals.

As for the referee, I thought he was very poor and Livingston's insistence on going to ground seemed to work in their favour. The two challenges in the far corner looked terrible from where we were and it seemed that Thomson in particular, took a sore one. I'll have to bow to people with better views of it than me though as it was the far corner from where I was sitting. I think Livi had a decent shout for a penalty in the first half and as mentioned before, the foul against Burchill for dummying the defender was unbelievable. Especially seeing as the linesman gave it and he didn't seem keen to get involved in the game much before that. Woods' booking was also strange as it was a free kick to us for a foul on Woods. Murphy was booked for persistent fouling though he did win the ball in the challenge that ended up with him being booked.

As for Livi, I thought the keeper looked very shaky though he was given a few dodgy pass backs to deal with. Looked to me like he could have done better with Burchill's goal as it didn't seem to be right in the corner. There didn't seem to be any real fluency to Livi's game and it was hard to see exactly what their approach was. Harris was dominant in the air and Thomson is excellent in the air as well for his height and The Livi wide players didn't often get in enough space to deliver anything decent into the box from the goal line. Livi did look dangerous from set plays and a couple of corners caused problems for us but with Gallacher in goals, it's not easy to score even when chances are created.

Overall, I thought it was a deserved victory and again, we improved from last week. I think we are getting to grips with getting the basic aspects of the game done correctly and in the final third we can look to use our quality to greater effect. Burchill is the best striker in the league by some margin and we need to utilise his qualities more effectively. When Brewster and Crawford were at their peak, we came 4th in the SPL and we virtually had 9 players trying to stop other teams scoring and those two did the rest. If we can keep the other team out, we have a chance to win every week with Burchill up front.

An improvement will be needed to beat Dundee on Saturday but we can go there with confidence. If Glass is back, we have a chance to claw some more points back try and get ourselves in a position to capitalise on any slip ups from teams above.