U19s v Stirling Albion

Schivone, Lennon, Smith and Leslie score in friendly

DUNFERMLINE 4 STIRLING ALBION 1

MATCH PICTURES
Dunfermline U19s maintained their match fitness with a friendly against Stirling Albion at the Fleet Ground on Sunday morning. The visitors had missed out on fixtures for four weeks and the Pars were anxious to stay sharp ahead of their final SFL League game at Ross County next weekend.

Hamish French rotated subs and the friendly also served as a platform to bring back goalkeeper Greg Paterson (more) to start his first match since 6th April last year.

Conner SCHIVONE kept up the developing habit of scoring an early goal. This week he accepted a Jordan White header on a long ball to convert really well from six yards with just three minutes gone.

Dunfermline had most of the first half hour but failed to increase on their lead. A tenth minute chance for John MacDonald was fired across the goal but slipped outside the left post.

At the midway point of the first half Schivone was offside when he rattled the crossbar after Ryan Thomson had fed him a cute back heeler. Then Stirling Albion equalised from a corner kick taken from the right. Jed Hiroz miscued at the near post and an Albion player stepped in to give Paterson no chance.

Steven Leslie headed a Rees Smith corner wide before, with just five minutes until the interval, Chris LENNON beat off challenges from two defenders to rifle in number two off the left goalpost.

Six minutes into the second half SMITH received a square pass to then advance to 16 yards from goal before he hit a fine shot passed Matt Porch in the visitors goal.

3-1 became 4-1 in 59 minutes when a Smith corner swung in from the right was headed down by Lee Graham for LESLIE to finish.  There was no further scoring but there were lots more chances and Stirling had Porch to thank for stopping good on target shots from Lennon and White (twice). Graham powered a header wide, Lennon slipped the ball wide of the far post and Scott hammered a 25 yarder over the crossbar.