Choice would be Cowdenbeath

First team starting debut means Shaun Byrne is set to miss out on the Pars U20s mid season warm weather training in Cyprus.

Ryan Thomson and Shaun Byrne v Raith Rovers

Shaun Byrne was born in Kirkcaldy so it was possibly fitting that his senior starting debut should be against Raith Rovers. The 19 year old was delighted that his time had come especially after warming the subs bench for 19 matches last season without ever being used.

"There were a few words on Monday or Tuesday that suggested that I could be playing, I didn't get too excited about it but just waited too see. It was a massive game for us so the Manager has shown a lot of faith in me" said the Kennoway lad who fully appreciated the importance of this Fife Derby.

"It will always be extra special to have played in a derby in my first game."

Shaun has been with Dunfermline since joining from Celtic at U15 level and his progress to the first team is another plaudit for the youth scheme at Dunfermline. He explained:-

"The travelling was getting too much so I came to Dunfermline. A few of my mates played for Dunfermline before so I have always taken an interest in Dunfermline and followed their scores. Hopefully now I can just keep pushing on and stay in the team."

That will be tough as Shaun continued:- "There is a lot of good midfielders so there's stiff competition for places. I just hope that I have done enough to play on Saturday again."

The Pars gaffer raised a few eyebrows with the selection of Shaun Byrne and completely wrong footed BBC Radio Scotland's Open All Mikes who had him being a 31 year old ex West Ham player who had been confused with the Pars youngster on less accurate websites.  Jefferies revealed his thinking behind handing Shaun his start:-

"We felt that with this being the third game in a week and another coming up we felt that a wee change was needed. Even though I was happy with three of the last four performances, we only picked up one point. You have to freshen it and you put your faith in a young boy who has been training with us. He has not been training a lot with the 20s over the last three or four months and he is starting to learn from experienced players just what it is all about. I just felt that he was ready today. We knew that it was a derby, we knew that it was a big decision but we had faith in him and he repaid us ten fold. He has terrific promise and he can go home tonight well chuffed with his performance."

The Pars Manager had a private word with Shaun before announcing the team on Wednesday and he had told the young prospect not to get involved with the occasion 'just play your own game and you will be fine' .

The starting debut was also almost a scoring one with Shaun hitting a good strike from the edge of the box that just cleared the crossbar. The first team call up might just have come at the wrong time for Shaun since his U20 team squad are due to leave on Wednesday 9th January for two weeks warm weather training in Cyprus.

"I'd rather stay if I was going to be involved with the first team but if I wasn't going to be involved it would be great to go away for two weeks. It is a new thing for everybody in the under 20s."

Jim Jefferies was just as aware of the complications the Under 20s trip to Cyprus might create with Shaun's coach John Potter possibly also needed as first team cover in the matches against Airdrie United and Cowdenbeath in mid January. The gaffer said:-

"We have spoken about that and I said to him 'look we have to decide about that because if we get an injury, even though we are pretty well covered in the middle of the park, I might have to keep him here because it is important. He will probably be cursing me for missing out on a couple of weeks in the sun in Cyprus - I will maybe take his place" joked Jefferies.

"We have high hopes for him, he is only a young kid and I thought that, especially in the first half, he was outstanding and he was okay in the second half until he tired a little bit. I was worried about him maybe fouling through being tired and having already being booked we took him off for his own benefit.

"He has got his eyes on being in the first team so we will have a discussion about Cyprus. You can see that he is a quality player, he will be very useful and will play a big part in the second half of our season."