Captain's Reaction to UEFA Draw

"There are no easy teams, you just need to look at the national side.

Dunfermline have been drawn against BK Hacken in the Second Qualifying Round for this season's UEFA Cup.  The first leg will be all ticket and played at home on Thursday 16th August with the return in Gothenburg on Thursday 30th August.

Pars Captain Scott Thomson whose Testimonial match against Manchester United XI will be played the week before Dunfermline play in Europe, gave his reaction to the draw:-

"I've never heard of them, I think they are a First Division side but don't know what kind of team they will be. There are no easy teams, you just need to look at the national side.  They don't have any easy away games or even home games because everybody is getting to a decent level now. It was going to be hard whoever we got.

"We would have preferred to be away in the first leg, it is important to get a lead from the first game and try not to lose a goal at home. It has been proven by what happened to us in Iceland, the boys didn't think we were big time Charlies who had just to turn up to win, but we thought it was going to be a bit easier than what it was. We were fortunate to get a 2-2 draw but they could have been four or five up by half time. 

"We don't know what Hacken are going to be like, what the stadium or the pitch are going to be. It could be pretty weird to be fair.

Is there a worry of complacency?

"It will be the same as it is in the league this season, it is not a case of turning up and winning games that doesn't happen anymore. XXXX will probably fancy their chances - they will think the same.  They will say 'they are not in the Premier League, they have just been relegated, we'll fancy our chances against them'. It will be hard but if we play like we have been doing in pre season, creating chances and being solid at the back then I am sure that we will have a chance of getting through."

In August 2004 Scott Thomson had the honour of leading a Dunfermline Athletic team into European competition for the first time in over 34 years. Now in his tenth and testimonial season at East End Park, Scott hopes to lead the team out again in the 2007-08 UEFA Cup.  Scott recalls how it felt to be captain the side against Icelandic team FH Hafnarfjordur. 

"It was a very special occasion for me especially with what happened the season before.  I missed from January onwards I was out with an ankle injury and ended up missing the Cup Final as well. It was the next thing I could focus my mind on, the thing I wanted to do most was lead the team out."

Barry Nicholson had led the team out in the 2004 Scottish Cup Final and with Scott, injury over, not able to break back into the team for the 2007 Final Greg Shields was the Pars captain this year.  

The home leg of the UEFA Cup in 2004 had to be played at McDiarmid Park since UEFA would not permit Dunfermline to use their artificial pitch so Scott knows that the return of European football to East End Park for the first time since a January evening when Anderlecht dumped George Farm's team out of the 1969/70 Fairs Cup will be extra special for the support:-

"I know how much they were disappointed by having to go to Perth but I am sure that they will be very happy that European football is coming back to East End Park."

The 2004 UEFA Cup Qualifying Round came early in the season just like this year's.  Scott felt that he maybe should not have played the first leg in the  Laugardalsvelli Stadium in Reykjavick:-

"I had split my head against Dundee United in the first SPL game of the season.  Wee Grady came flying into me, I have still got the mark where he burst my head really bad. I was mildly concussed but Davie Hay said that I was an important man and he wanted to play me in midfield.  I remember the game and I wasn't really too keen to try and win balls in the air because my head was patched up. It was a great experience and we were lucky enough to get away with a 2-2 after we got a bit of a doing.

Travel to Sweden should be easier than the trip to Iceland:-

"When we got to the hotel it was good but the delay with something wrong here and something wrong there, not training until eight o'clock at night was a bit strange.

Dunfermline played the second leg at McDiarmid Park, Perth on Thursday 26th August.

"It was like a home game, the park was good to be fair there were no excuses for that. We were still in Europe the last I can remember. I remember going for the ball in the air and there seemed to be a bit of a stramash. The ball went away up in the air, I think I must have been out for a few seconds because the next thing I remember is Stillie over me trying to turn me around. I was struggling and felt terrible and couldn't stop being sick, my wife came in to see me but she said that I was just staring right through her I just seemed to be in a daze.

"I knew there was only five minutes to go not long before that happened.  I have spoken to people and they have said that it was a definite foul, the boy just came in a smashed me on the side of the head and that was it."

Dunfermline's European Record