600 and counting
Monday, 9th Nov 2020After 600 League Cup goals, a little look back at some of the other goalscoring milestones in the competition.
The turning point on last month’s excellent Betfred Cup victory over Falkirk was Euan Murray’s superb 58th minute header from a free kick by Dom Thomas. It transpires that this goal also marked a significant milestone as it was Dunfermline’s 600th Scottish League Cup goal since the competition began in 1946. We thought we’d have a little look back at some of the other goalscoring milestones in the competition.
Pars’ first-ever goal came in their second League Cup match, played against St Johnstone at Muirton Park on 28 September 1946. Striker Dougie Wallace was the scorer but sadly his effort didn’t count for much as Saints drubbed Dunfermline 6-2! Athletic’s 100th goal in the tournament came almost seven years later on 8 August 1953 at East End Park when Eric Baikie’s goal helped the home side to a 2-1 win over Arbroath.
Euan Murray post Falkirk
Fri, 9th Oct 2020
Fast forward six years and it was almost inevitable that Dunfermline’s greatest-ever goalscorer would get in on the act. On 15 August 1959 at Cathkin Park (where on earth is that we hear younger fans saying), Charlie Dickson scored Dunfermline’s only goal and the club’s 200th in the League Cup against Third Lanark who ran riot scoring six! Perhaps not Charlie’s most memorable match, but since he went on to score a record-breaking 31 League Cup goals for Dunfermline, it is good that he appears among these milestones.
Goal number 300 came at the peak of Dunfermline’s playing history. On 3 September 1966, the Pars travelled to Brockville to play Falkirk and came away with a hard-fought 2-1 win. Bustling midfielder Hugh Robertson scored the milestone-making first goal.
At that point, Dunfermline had been reaching another one hundred goals in less than 50 matches, but they had to wait eighteen years and a further 91 matches before they got their next hundred, and it was a couple of Pars legends who made it happen.
The Jim Leishman revival had just got underway and as a sign of things to come, the Pars defeated Arbroath 4-0 in the League Cup on 15 August 1984, and scoring the all-important 400th League Cup goal that day was none other than Norrie McCathie.
The Leishman effect was evident when Dunfermline got their 500th League Cup goal too. Fresh from having saved the Pars from relegation in 2004/05, Jim’s team took on Hibernian in the quarter-final at East End Park on 8 November 2005 and in what was to be one of the best results of his second spell as manager, they beat Hibs 3-0 with Mark Burchill scoring the milestone goal.
It has taken a further fifteen years for the latest milestone to be achieved and a great pity that such a wonderful goal couldn’t be celebrated in front of our own fans, but since when did that stop us from enjoying a victory against our rivals?
As a footnote, that match and Euan Murray provided us with a different milestone – in scoring two goals, Euan became the first central defender to score twice in an official match for Dunfermline since Lee Ashcroft in the Challenge Cup at Brechin in September 2016.
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