Dunfermline 1 Aberdeen 0

Fourth Pre Season Friendly. Pars made three changes to starting eleven. Pat Clarke (53) 1-0.

DUNFERMLINE 1 ABERDEEN 0

MATCH PICTURES
For the visit of Mark McGhee`s Aberdeen Jim McIntyre shuffled his pack.  From the side that lost to a Manchester United XI in came Chris Higgins, Pat Clarke and Andy Kirk.  Out of the starting eleven went Austin McCann, Steven McDougall and Steven Bell.

Aberdeen gave a start to `yellow boots` Lee Hendrie who is on trial from Derby County and it was Michael Paton and Chris Maguire who kicked the match off for the SPL outfit ,playing towards the empty McCathie Stand.  Rain had been pelting down for a few hours and the pitch was extremely slippy causing some heavy looking tackles.

On five minutes, Nick Phinn was the first to get a shot in on goal.  His low effort at an angle from the right escaped outside the left goalpost. Paul Willis then sent in a cross from the right that just evaded Clarke and Higgins crossed from the right to give the rather meagre Pars support grounds for optimism.

A neat back flick from Willis was then overstruck by Phinn but there were glimpses of good close passing from Dunfermline that had the fans applauding. A Williams long ball was chased up the right by Fraser Fyvie but he belted off his defender for the first corner in 13 minutes.  The Pars saw that off with ease.

In 19 minutes an Alex Keddie header out of his own half was trapped by Kirk and he fed that out to the right where Woods hit a cross that was too high for the centrally placed strikers but dropped nicely for David Graham on the left side of the box but although he shot sweetly on target Jamie Langfield was able to parry the ball around his right hand post for a corner.  Willis` first was followed by another from the right and that one was headed firmly by Keddie on to the roof of the net.

In 29 minutes Woods switched the ball across to Graham on the opposite wing and Clarke just failed to be on the end of his early cross.  Keddie blasted a 30 yarder wide of Langfield`s goal but there were much more encouraging signs for the home team although they were fortunate when Higgins directed his headed clearance straight to Maguire and the ball was fired wide right from 16 yards.

Willis could only win a corner in 35 minutes after Woods had rattled an early cross to Mason on the 18 yard line.  Next Kirk made Langfield hold a shot from 12 yards but he didn`t connect fully and the keeper was not tested. As half time approached the Fifers kept up the pressure, Willis forced another corner and Keddie drilled another low shot from distance at the keeper.

Aberdeen pushed up but failed to do very much with the possession they enjoyed midway into the Pars half.  Maguire was caught offside before the play came back at Dunfermline and Chris Smith had to come out of his box to clear into the North West Stand.

Although Aberdeen rallied towards the break, it was really advantage Dunfermline for the first 45.

Half Time: Dunfermline 0 Aberdeen 0

There were the usual three subs from the Pars for the second half and then the same just minutes after the restart from Aberdeen.  In 53 minutes Andy Kirk was wide left with no one really coming to help him.  He was pressed into beating his man and sending over a great ball from the byeline into the six yard box where Pat CLARKE rushed in to dip and head into the net.

A Higgins tackle on sub Josh Megennis earned the visitors a free kick on the edge of the box and Robbie Williams curled a good attempt just outside the far post. The procession of subs continued with four more for the Pars in 61 minutes but the travelling support who had been restricted hitherto to cheering a ball boy got something to excite them in 69 minutes.  Rickie Foster made a good burst through the middle and when delivered from wide Mitchel Megginson headed over the crossbar.

Joe Cardle made a typical break two minutes later to shoot with venom from 20 yards and sub keeper Mark Howard could only palm the ball over off his crossbar.  Aberdeen were not out of this however.  In 78 minutes a Megginson cross from the left was cleared by Dowie straight to Smith but his cross remarkably managed to travel across the Pars six yard box untouched.  Then Kyle Allison pulled off a fine save from a downward Magennis header from close in and McCardle managed to send the rebound wide to the left of goal.

As the match entered the final ten minutes, Keddie was forced to retire and Aberdeen peppered the Pars box with crosses from the left but with still three central defenders on the park the aerial threat was not to prove successful for the Dons. A 89th minute corner was headed away by Dowie and then again by him as the second ball was returned.

A good win for the home side and they could have scored more than one.

MATCH PICTURES