Dunfermline 1 Airdrieonians 1

Saturday, 18th Feb 2023

cinch League One: three changes as Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Chris Mochrie and Robbie Mahon started. Ben Stanway (38) 0-1: Nikolay Todorov (73) 1-1:

Former Dunfermline keeper David Hutton was the Airdrie hero coming off the bench to save a Kyle Benedictus penalty.

Just seven days after serving up a seven goal thriller these two teams met again. Dunfermline made three changes while Airdrie made two. Into the Pars starting eleven came three on loan players - Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Chris Mochrie and Robbie Mahon as Joe Chalmers, Lewis McCann and Kyle Macdonald dropped to the bench. Rhys McCabe’s Airdrieonians were without Callum Smith who was red carded the previous Saturday and Aaron Taylor-Sinclair. Into the Diamonds side came Craig Watson and Ben Stanway.

The Dunfermline players wore black armbands and Deniz Mehmet sported the Turkish flag on his shirt as a mark of respect for those suffering after the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

The visitors kicked off attacking the goal at the McCathie Stand end and the first item of note was treatment required to the Dunfermline captain Kyle Benedictus on five minutes. He was able to return two minutes later but the game got bogged down with throw ins and clearances. A yellow card was shown to one of the away coaching staff in eleven minutes as his side perpetuated with high balls forward.

First chance of the game came from an Adam Frizzell delivery from the left across the face of goal that Calum Gallagher failed to connect with. Then in 14 minutes a Josh Edwards cross from the left was met by Craig Wighton but his shot went wide left.

An Edwards cross was deflected for a corner on the left that Callum Fordyce headed away but next a Mahon pass sent Matty Todd in on the keeper but Josh Rae bravely dived at the Pars midfielder’s feet to make the save. Todd was presented with the next chance from a Mochrie cut back but that was blocked.

Dunfermline intensified the pressure on the visitors goal as the half way point in the first half past but it wasn’t to last long. Airdrie’s first corner in 27th minute was almost costly. Charlie Telfer sent the ball over from the left and Fordyce’s headed came off crossbar and fortunately was held by Deniz Mehmet. The Pars keeper then turned a Stanway effort around his right hand post as the game swung back to the visitors.

Further pressure came from a 33rd minute corner conceded by Benedictus in stopping Frizzell. Fordyce headed this one wide left. Edwards was next to attempt one for Dunfermline but his left footed shot from 35 yards out cleared the Airdrie bar.

A Watson foul on Wighton afforded Mochrie an opportunity from a free kick 30 yards out but he drove that against the Airdrie wall. Then in 38 minutes a goal and it came for the visitors. Cammy Ballantyne was deep inside the Pars penalty box to receive a pass from Telfer and his cut back found STANWAY in front of goal to stab home. 0-1

Dunfermline failed to reply before the interval. In fact Gabby McGill had a great chance from the edge of the box but shot straight at Mehmet and so for the second week running Dunfermline went in trailing the North Lanarkshire team.

Half time: Dunfermline 0 Airdrieonians 1

First chance for an equaliser came in 48 minutes when Edwards played Todd up the right but Rae beat Wighton to the cross. Four minutes later Mahon forced a good save out of Rae and Edwards follow up was turned behind for a corner but it was less than ten minutes into the second half when Lewis McCann replaced Robbie Mahon.

A surging Todd run up the left on to a release by McCann earned a corner on the left. That led to a dangerous Ritchie-Hosler cross into the Airdrie six yard box that no Dunfermline heads could meet.

Mehmet held a low driven 64th minute free kick from Telfer after Todd was penalised for his challenge on Ballantyne on the right edge of the Pars box. James McPake then made a double substitution introducing Joe Chalmers and Nikolay Todorov for Chris Hamilton and Matty Todd.

It looked like Todorov had made the dished difference when he rose to get his head on a Ritchie-Hosler delivery from the right but his effort came off the right upright to end up in the keeper’s hands. The much sought after Dunfermline goal did however come in 73 minutes and it was the combination of the two subs that did the job. A short taken corner to Chalmers corner on the left was crossed and met by TODOROV at the near post. 1-1

There was a scramble, won by Benedictus, to get the ball out of the net but McCann, Rae and Watson were all shown yellow for their part in the tug of war. Eight minutes from the end McCann made a break into the opposition box and when he prodded the ball through defenders Wighton’s attempts to finish were halted by the keeper’s challenge. A second yellow was shown to the Diamonds keeper and referee Ross Hardie awarded a penalty.

Former Pars keeper David Hutton came on as Stanway was sacrificed. Benedictus hit the 84th minute penalty to the left side and Hutton dived the correct way to parry the ball away.

Todorov made Hutton save again, Wighton pulled a shot wide from a Comrie corner as there was a tremendous final push. Unfortunately it was to remain 1-1 and the points dropped combined with Falkirk’s 1-0 home win over Alloa Athletic meant that the Fifers lead at the top of League One was reduced to five points.

DUNFERMLINE: Deniz Mehmet: Aaron Comrie, Kyle Benedictus (c), Rhys Breen, Josh Edwards: Chris Hamilton (Joe Chalmers 65): Robbie Mahon (Lewis McCann 55), Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Chris Mochrie: Matthew Todd (Nikolay Todorov 65): Craig Wighton.
SUBS NOT USED: Kyle Macdonald, Kevin O’Hara, Ewan Otoo, Paul Allan, Miller Fenton, Max Little (GK).
SCORERS: Todorov (73)
YELLOW CARD: McCann (74), Ritchie-Hosler (87), Dave Mackay (90+1)

AIRDRIEONIANS: Josh Rae: Cammy Ballantyne, Callum Fordyce (c), Ben Stanway (David Hutton 83), Euan Deveney, Rhys McCabe, Craig Watson, Adam Frizzell, Charlie Telfer, Gabby McGill, Calum Gallagher (Salim Kouider-Aïssa 90)
SUBS NOT USED: Justin Devenny, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, Lewis McGregor, Lachie Byrd, Joe Dixon, Dean McMaster, Bright Prince
SCORERS: Stanway (38)
YELLOW CARD: McCabe (57), Rae (74, 82), Watson (74), E Deveney (90+4).
RED CARD: Rae (82)

REFEREE: Ross Hardie
WEATHER: Drizzle 6°C
ATTENDANCE 4468

NEXT MATCH: cinch League One (away) v Queen of the South, Saturday 25th February 2023, kick off 3.00pm at Palmerston Park

Winning ticket number – 60444 Prize amount - £1,000 of which £100 was donated back by the winning hospitality table. Deniz Mehmet’s signed gloves - Winning ticket number – 62211


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Match Photos To Follow.

Preview Airdrieonians

Saturday, 18th Feb 2023

cinch League One: Saturday 18th February 2023 kick off 3.00pm at The KDM Group East End Park

After last weekend’s thrilling match between these teams at the Excelsior Stadium there should be quite an appetite for the return this Saturday at The KDM Group East End Park.

The most recent meeting was won by Dunfermline but last time at home the Pars were restricted to a single point. Indeed a look at the record confirms how close the results tend to be in this fixture. There have been 115 league games with Airdrie in all their guises with the Lanarkshire club having 41 wins and the Fifers 41. 

Milestones v Airdrieonians at home

Last Victory | 23/08/14 | 3-0 | League One
Last Defeat | 29/01/16 | 0-1 | League One
Best Victory | 11/11/61 | 6-2 | Division One (old)
Worst Defeats | 14/09/46 | 0-5 | Division Two (old)
02/09/78 | 0-5 | League Cup
Last Goalless Draw | 23/08/08 | Division One
First Meeting | 27/11/26 | 0-2 | Division Two

Pars v Airdrie: The Full League Record

	P	W	D	L	F	A
At East End	59	24	20	15	96	88
At Airdrie	58	17	13	27	89	121
League One	14	5	3	6	21	21
Division One (up to 1975)	42	19	6	17	83	90
Division Two (up to 1975)	12	1	3	8	24	42
Premier League (since 1975)	4	0	1	3	4	8
First Division (since 1975)	43	16	20	7	53	48
TOTALS	115	41	33	41	185	209

.
Last Time at The KDM Group East End Park
League One, Saturday 27th August 2022

Dunfermline 1-1 Airdrieonians
Sat, 27th Aug 2022

Dunfermline took the lead midway through the second half when Edwards launched another throw in from the right. Todorov rose for it with former Pars captain Callum FORDYCE at the near post and the goal came off the Airdrieonians centre back. Ironically Dycey first goal for Dunfermline, 1-0.

The noise level increased significantly as East End Park celebrated and just four minutes later it came close for them to celebrating two but Todd smashed the ball narrowly wide left. Fordyce then almost made amends with a shot that went over off the crossbar.

It was Airdrieonians who scored the only other goal with FRIZZELL taking advantage of an unfortunate attempt to clear and whacking a low shot into the bottom right of the Pars goal.

The 78th minute goal was the first this season to be scored against the Pars in League One. 1-1. The one point meant Airdrieonians returned to North Lanarkshire top of the league on goal difference.

DUNFERMLINE: Deniz Mehmet: Aaron Comrie, Kyle Benedictus (c), Rhys Breen, Josh Edwards: Chris Hamilton (Joe Chalmers 62): Kyle Macdonald, Matthew Todd, Chris Mochrie: Kevin O’Hara (Lewis McCann 50), Nikolay Todorov
SUBS NOT USED: Sam Fisher, Andrew Tod, Taylor Sutherland, Max Little (GK)

AIRDRIEONIANS: Murray Johnson: Cammy Ballantyne, Rhys McCabe, Euan Deveney (Ben Wylie 73), Callum Fordyce, Adam Frizzell, Callum Smith, Lewis Jamieson (Calum Gallagher 43), Craig Watson, Justin Devenny, Gabby McGill (Salim Kouider-Aïssa 85).
SUBS NOT USED: Cole Gibson, Trialist, Dean McMaster, Alex Henderson.

Last twelve meetings

Prior to this season the most recent meetings were in the 2015-2016 season. Airdrieonians have won six, Dunfermline three and three have been drawn.

2022/2023
League One Airdrieonians 3-4 Dunfermline 11/02/23
League One Dunfermline 1-1 Airdrieonians 27/08/22
2015/2016
First Division Airdrieonians 3-0 Dunfermline 23/04/16
First Division Dunfermline 0-1 Airdrieonians 29/01/16
First Division Airdrieonians 0-2 Dunfermline 14/11/15
First Division Dunfermline 1-1 Airdrieonians 26/09/15

2014/2015
First Division Airdrieonians 3-2 Dunfermline 02/05/15
First Division Dunfermline 2-2 Airdrieonians 17/01/15
First Division Airdrieonians 3-1 Dunfermline 13/12/14
First Division Dunfermline 3-0 Airdrieonians 23/08/14

2013/2014
First Division Airdrie United 2-0 Dunfermline 05/04/14
First Division Dunfermline 0-1 Airdrie United 18/01/14

Recent Form

Airdrieonians have won three of their last six games and lost two. Their reversal against Dunfermline was only their second league defeat since 29th October. They are undefeated in their last five away league games.

Dunfermline are undefeated in their last eleven league matches and are unbeaten at home in all competitions this season.

Last six matches

DUNFERMLINE
Airdrieonians (A) W 4-3
Montrose (H) W 2-0
Clyde (A) D 1-1
Dundee (A) L 2-4
Partick Thistle (A) D 1-1
Peterhead (H) W 4-0

AIRDRIEONIANS
Dunfermline (H) L 3-4
Clyde (H) W 1-0
Alloa Athletic (H) W 4-0
Kelty Hearts (A) D 1-1
Peterhead (A) W 3-0
FC Edinburgh (H) L 3-5

League Record

DUNFERMLINE
League Position: 1st
League Points: 52
Goal Difference: +24
Home League Record: P11 W6 D5 L0 GF18 GA8
Last Six Match Form: WDLDWW

AIRDRIEONIANS
League Position: 3rd
League Points: 39
Goal Difference: +13
Away League Record: P12 W4 D4 L4 GF17 GA16
Last Six Match Form: LWDWWL

Last Time Out

DUNFERMLINE (v Airdrieonians): Deniz Mehmet: Aaron Comrie, Kyle Benedictus (c), Rhys Breen (Kevin O’Hara 64): Kyle Macdonald (Chris Mochrie HT), Chris Hamilton (Ewan Otoo 32), Joe Chalmers (Robbie Mahon 32), Josh Edwards: Matthew Todd: Craig Wighton, Lewis McCann (Nikolay Todorov 79).
SUBS NOT USED: Miller Fenton, Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Andrew Tod, Max Little (GK).

AIRDRIEONIANS (v Dunfermline): Josh Rae: Cammy Ballantyne, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, Callum Fordyce (c), Euan Deveney, Rhys McCabe, Adam Frizzell (Justin Devenny, 67), Charlie Telfer (Ben Stanway 77), Callum Smith, Gabby McGill (Lewis McGregor 77), Calum Gallagher (Lachie Byrd 79).
SUBS NOT USED: Salim Kouider-Aïssa, Dean McMaster, Craig Watson, Bright Prince, David Hutton (GK).

Airdrieonians will be without Callum Smith after he saw red in last Saturday’s match.

Referee will be Ross Hardie, his second visit to Dunfermline this season having previously officiated the match against Montrose in August.

Other League One Fixtures

Clyde v Peterhead
Falkirk v Alloa Athletic
Kelty Hearts v Queen of the South
Montrose v FC Edinburgh

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