Preview Rangers

Goal shy Pars meet Rangers for the seventh time in Scottish Cup history. The match will be played on Sunday 7th January 2007 with a 12:15 kick off.

Earlier Dunfermline were knocked out of this season`s CIS Insurance Cup at the hands of Rangers who inflicted a 2-0 home defeat on the Pars. The Third Round Scottish Cup pairing means this will be the third of four meetings between the clubs at East End Park this season but this time Dunfermline will be looking to take advantage of the unrest in the Rangers camp.

To do that they will also need to break their five game run without scoring a goal. Cup goals in 1988 came in the midst of an eight match Premier League run without a goal. The one and only time that Dunfermline have knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup came on 20th February 1988 after five of those league games without a goal. Is this an omen?

The Pars had to wait 73 years for the first meeting with Rangers on 1st March 1958 at East End Park. Challenging strongly for promotion from the old Second Division, there was huge interest in the visit of the Glasgow side and on the day a record crowd of 24,377 turned out.

Dunfermline attacked Rangers from the start and had strong claims for a penalty denied before McWilliam put the Pars ahead in 13th minute. As expected, Rangers hit back and equalised through Murray in 31st minute and then scored the winner with a Ralph Brand goal six minutes before the interval.

Six years later and the clubs met in the semi final. Dunfermline suffered a late blow with the withdrawal of captain Jim MacLean through injury, and lost a poor match 1-0.

The next match was in 1984 by which time Dunfermline were well and truly near the bottom of the pile. But no one had taken account of Jim Leishman`s motivational qualities and his Second Division troops came to within nine minutes of one of the great Scottish Cup shocks after Rab Stewart had put them into a surprise lead at Ibrox. Two late goals saved Rangers blushes, but there was no escape four years later.

Leishman`s Pars won convincingly with goals from Mark Smith and John Watson to secure what has been, so far, Dunfermline`s only cup victory.

In 1991 Rangers secured a comfortable 2-0 win but that wasn`t the case last time around. In 2003 Dunfermline took the lead when French midfielder David Grondin scored with a 20 yard strike, only for Rangers to level before half time from Caniggia. The tempo and tempers rose with Barry Ferguson being sent off and Rangers grateful to accept the replay. Unfortunately the second game proved too easy for Rangers who ran out 3-0 winners on their home patch.

As you can see Dunfermline have perhaps only won once but there has been plenty of incident and interest. Let`s hope this one lives up to its predecessors. Referee will be Iain Brines who officiated in Dunfermline`s match at Easter Road on the last Saturday of 2006. In both his matches in charge of the Pars this season, he has yellow carded four Pars players.

The draw for the Fourth Round will be made on Sunday at 2.10 pm, live on Sky Sports and BBC Radio Scotland. Dunfermline or Rangers will be draw number 13, which relates to the order the clubs were drawn in the third round. Should a replay be necessary it will be played at Ibrox on Tuesday 16th January and would lead to the postponement of Dunfermline`s home tie against Raith Rovers in the Fife Cup.