Euan Muzz-les Bairns

Captain is the hero of the night with two second half goals to sink the Bairns

In scoring two goals, Euan Murray became the first central defender to score twice in an official match for Dunfermline since Scott Thomson did it in a Premier League match against Rangers on 23rd January 2002!

For the first time in his professional career 26 year old Dunfermline captain, Euan Murray found himself on a hattrick in Friday night’s match against Falkirk. Euan was the hero of the night scoring both Pars goals and rightly, though joking, disputing the award of the Betfred Man of the Match to Dom Thomas.

The central defender had a lot to thank Dom Thomas for since he can attack in the knowledge that Dom is going to put deliveries on a plate for him. Euan agreed:-

“It definitely is. The wee man has been a great addition to the squad. I think he’s added a lot to us and you saw that last season. He’s somebody who excites people. I was going to say he gets people off their seats - but they’re not in the ground.

“He’s certainly going to excite the fans and that’s a big plus for us. For me, and for the strikers, him getting to the bye-line and putting crosses in is something we hope to see throughout the season.”

Euan and Dunfermline’s first goal came in the 13th minute of the second half when a Thomas earned free kick 28 yards out on the left side, was taken by the offended and sent into the danger area for the skipper to head home. The second just seven minutes later saw Euan head home a Thomas won, and taken, corner from the left and then nine minutes from the end, Thomas sent in a cross from a free kick on the right that Euan nearly got to for a third. He lamented:-

“I think somebody got a good touch and just steered it away from me - or I probably would have been in again. We’ve got the wee man, Dom Thomas, putting in quality deliveries and Ryan Dow on the other side, they make my job a hell of a lot easier in the middle when the balls are coming in with such quality.

“Obviously we’re really pleased to come away with three points and the most important thing for me was a clean sheet again. It’s obviously nice to chip in with a couple of goals but my bread and butter is clean sheets and that’s what makes me happy.”

That clean sheet was under pressure especially in the first half but it was something that did not take the Pars by surprise:-

“They’re a good team and we knew that coming into the game. Falkirk would probably feel hard done by the way things panned out last season and that they’re not a Championship club themselves.

“I think they’ve got a decent budget and a decent playing staff, and I think that showed. At times, you’re going to be under the kosh, and you’ll maybe ride your luck a wee bit.

“But I thought we defended solidly. Fônners had a great save at 0-0 but other than that I felt they didn’t really have a great chance after that. For ourselves, we came in at half-time and, even though we hadn’t played that great, we still had a good few chances and we could have scored as well.

“We made a slight adjustment at half-time. We dropped one of the strikers in, because they had three in the middle and they were maybe outnumbering us a wee bit and we felt like we couldn’t get out. I felt when we did that we took control of the game. When your chances come and you take them, it’s hard to come back from that.”

In just the second competitive match of the season and Euan agreed that it did look as though Stevie Crawford’s new team was showing signs of beginning to gel.

“Yes, but it is early doors. We’ve got a big game on Tuesday - if it goes ahead - and we’re all looking forward to that. We’re going into this league campaign hoping we can take our form from the Betfred straight into that. That’s going to be so important for us, to start well ‪next Saturday‬ against Inverness.”

Players and management are preparing for Tuesday night’s Betfred Cup tie at Rugby Park despite knowing nothing about Kilmarnock’s ability to fulfil the fixture after their first team squad were put into 14 days quarantine. Euan confirmed that he knew no more about the situation than anyone else:-

“I’ve not heard a thing about it. I was joking about a couple of days off but I don’t think the gaffer will give us that! It’s just important we look after ourselves over the weekend now and then we’ll be in and look forward to the game on Tuesday, because it is a good game to go and play in, to test ourselves against a Premiership team who have done well.”

Euan revealed that the Dunfermline squad was tested for Covid-19 on Friday, for that game on Tuesday and as a Kilmarnock resident Euan is really keen that it takes place:-

“So, we’ll get the results of the tests and see where we are. I stay just two minutes from Rugby Park, it’s probably the most local game I can get. But, listen, they’re a good team and we know it will be a very tough task against them.

“If we can defend as well as we did at times on Friday night and going the other way we’ve got some great players going forward, then we can go there and try to give a right good account of ourselves.”

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