Dunfermline Athletic

1961 Scottish Cup Third Round

Friday, 25th Feb 2011

1961 Road to Hampden - Fifty years ago today Dunfermline had a famous victory over Aberdeen at Pittodrie

Line Ups from Match Programme, click through for Match Programme pdf

Saturday 25th February 1961
Scottish Cup Third Round
ABERDEEN 3 DUNFERMLINE 6

1961 SCOTTISH CUP PROG v ABERDEEN
Following the Second Round win at Stranraer, Dunfermline played Division One leaders Rangers at home, and in front of a 20,000 crowd, picked up a point in a 0-0 draw.  It was a game that the Pars could have won, although they had to survive two strong penalty claims from the Ibrox side. The result left Dunfermline sitting in 11th place with 23 points.

Pundits forecasting the outcome of the cup game were plumping for an Aberdeen win. The last time the two teams met at the end of December 1960, Aberdeen won convincingly 6-2 at East End Park. However, in recent games at Pittodrie, the Pars had given a good account of themselves despite eventually going down. The Press identified Aberdeen`s Brownlee and Mulhall as the players that most needed watching.  However, the overall feeling of the local paper was that the Pars could do worse than secure a draw, and play again the following Wednesday with home advantage.

One welcome passenger on the team bus heading north was centre-half Jimmy Stevenson, recovering from a broken leg sustained against Hibernian some 10 weeks earlier.  Manager Jock Stein fielded the same eleven players that played against Stranraer.

Things didn`t start well and within a minute the Pars found themselves a goal down when Ewan crossed and Mitchell turned the ball towards goal. It looked an easy take for Jim Herriot, but the ball slipped from his grasp, allowing Brownlee to head home. Twice after that, Herriot endangered his goal with faulty handling, but in both cases the danger was cleared.

This was Aberdeen`s best spell and it took the Athletic forwards some time to find their feet. The equaliser came in 21 minutes, when Doug Fraser sliced a clearance to Dickson on the right wing, and his cross was headed home by Alex Smith. Little had a chance to put Aberdeen back into the lead, but Herriot touched the ball onto a post and Williamson cleared off the goal line. Smith had a fierce drive that narrowly missed, before in 32 minutes Ogston dropped Smith`s cross and there was Charlie Dickson to hammer the ball into the back of the net.

Herriot then had a fine double save from Ewan and Brownlee, and as an indication of how wet the pitch was, Coutts slid some 10 yards on his back after clearing the ball.

Three minutes into the second half, some Dickson juggling on the right made space for Tommy McDonald, who raced in to shoot home. Despite the referee looking at the linesman, the goal stood.

The Dons were by now being continually forced to defend, but against the run of play in 59 minutes Brownlee scored after backheeling home a corner. However, the Aberdeen fightback lasted only two minutes, as a McDonald centre was touched on by Dickson to Melrose, whose shot was deflected into the net.

With 13 minutes remaining Aberdeen centre-half Coutts was injured and was moved to centre-forward for the rest of the game. The weakened Aberdeen defence conceded a fifth goal in 82 minutes, when a mazy McDonald run gave George Peebles his chance to shoot home, off the far post.

Herriot dropped a Ewan cross 2 minutes from time, and Coutts was on hand to touch the ball into the back of the net. However, the Pars had the final word, and right on full time, George Miller headed home to finish the game on a high note.

ABERDEEN: John Ogston, Dave Bennett, Gordon Sim, Ian Burns, Doug Coutts, Doug Fraser, Dickie Ewen, Charlie Cooke, Billy Little, Ken Brownlee, George Mulhall.
SCORER: Brownlee 2, Coutts

DUNFERMLINE: Jim Herriot, Willie Cunningham, John Sweeney, Ron Mailer, Jackie Williamson, George Miller, Tommy McDonald, Alex Smith, Charlie Dickson, George Peebles, Harry Melrose
SCORERS: Smith, Dickson, McDonald, Melrose, Peebles, Miller.

REFEREE: G Mitchell (Falkirk)

Scottish Cup Third Round Results

Attendance Receipts
Aberdeen 3 Dunfermline Ath 6 15,455 £1,780
Alloa Athletic 2 Forfar Athletic 1 2,994 £256
Brechin City 0 Airdrieonians 3 2,800 £240
Hamilton Ac 0 Hibernian 4 11,437 £1,287
Motherwell 2 Rangers 2 31,958 £4,000
Partick Thistle 1 Hearts 2 23,000 £2,470
Raith Rovers 1 Celtic 4 19,359 £2097
St Mirren 3 Third Lanark 3 20,810 £2,377

1961 Scottish Cup Second Round: Stranraer 1 Dunfermline 3



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