Blue Square Opponents for Pars

Dunfermline will be on the road south for pre season friendly in Northumberland on Saturday 11th July.

Dunfermline Athletic have arranged a pre season friendly against Blue Square Conference North club, Blyth Spartans.  The match will be played on Saturday 11th July with a 3.00pm kick off at the Northumberland club's home ground, Croft Park which will celebrate 100 years of football this year.

In 2007 Croft Park underwent an extensive redevelopment which saw much of the ash terracing levelled and replaced with concrete terracing. New dugouts and a wheelchair enclosure were also added. Further developments have been made to meet full Blue Square North criteria. These developments include extending the Port of Blyth main stand roof to cover the bottom tier which has had seats installed, building a roof over the Plessey Road terrace, providing cover for 1080, and building three new turnstiles at the Princess Louise Road end.

Spartans are managed by former Hartlepool United and Darlington manager Mick Tait and the club has a famous FA Cup record. They reached the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1977-78. Having beaten Chesterfield and Stoke City the club then drew 1-1 at Wrexham. The replay took place at Newcastle United's St James' Park, watched by a crowd of 42,167 Blyth eventually went out losing 2-1.

Blyth's next memorable cup run came in their first season as a Unibond Premier Division club in 1995/96 when they travelled to high flying Division Three side Bury and won 2-0. In the second round Blyth again were on their travels this time to Division Two side Stockport County where they lost 2-0.

In 2008 Blyth hit the cup trail again. Qualifying Round wins against Whitby Town, Buxton and Sheffield FC saw Blyth reach the 1st Round for the first time since 1997. A home tie against League Two promotion chasers Shrewsbury Town saw Croft Park host league opposition for the first time since 1981. The result matched the occasion as Blyth ran out comfortable 3-1 winners.

The Second Round saw Blyth travel to League Two strugglers AFC Bournemouth who included Darren Anderton amongst their players. A hard fought 0-0 draw on the South Coast saw Blyth take Bournemouth back to Croft Park where Ged Dalton put Blyth through to the Third Round with a last minute winner. Both games were shown live on Setanta Sports.

In the Third Round Blyth played Premiership opposition competitively for the first time in their history when they welcomed Blackburn Rovers to Croft Park. In a game again covered live by Setanta Sports Blyth fell to a 1-0 defeat with the only goal coming via a direct free kick from Chilean player of the year Carlos Villanueva.