Managers Post Cowden

27/10/12: JJ - We made it harder than it should have been but there is no doubt that we were by far the more superior team."

Jim Jefferies felt that his side dominated the game but was very pleased when the second goal went in. That second goal might have come just two minutes after Joe Cardle had shot the Pars ahead but Thomas Flynn kept out Stephen Husband's 30th minute penalty.

"If we had scored from the penalty that could have let us go on and win a lot more comfortably and earlier. That gave them the lift and the threat only came from breakaways now and then. They spent most of their time trying to contain us but we kept prodding away and playing some good football.

"In the second half while it was still 1-0 there was a ten minute spell when we got a little bit too slack. They broke away and it never really came to much, but the threat was there. You could see once the second goal went in it was just a relief all round. The third one came and we saw it out.

"It was one of those you get in a season when you need to grind out a result. There is no doubt that we were the far better team and we deserved to win. 3-0 looks comfortable in the end but we made it harder than it really should have been."

The 30 minute delay caused by the retiral of referee Kevin Clancy at half time made it very difficult for both sets of players and the managers sent them out to keep active during the confusion. The Pars Manager made the case for a fourth official to be in attendance at SFL games as well as those in the SPL:-

"Things like that can happen when the referee has got clattered by Colin Cameron. Unintentionally obviously. I know Mickey well, he probably had a wee kick at him!" mused JJ.

"He was struggling and it just shows you how much trouble it causes when he can't continue. In this day and age I do not know why the Football League don't have a fourth official. They would probably say because they do not have enough numbers but they should. Kevin could have just stood there and taken his place"

Jim explained that during the search for another suitably qualified match official, the game was in doubt.

"Cowdenbeath were ok about it, we wanted to play it and you have to credit the officials. We had one who was a registered official and we got word that we couldn't really cancel the game; if we did we might have faced the SFA's wrath for not completing the game when we were told to go on by the supervisor. He said that it was 'your decision' if we decided not to play.

"The only thing open to us was to play it. At the end of the day we got a registered man but it caused a lot of confusion because he was not allowed to give offside, he wasn't allowed to give any free kicks - just the straight forward is the ball in or out. I felt that sometimes the referee had to hang about in that half and left the other half to the proper linesman.

"The referee informed us at half time that he would need to spend most of his time in this half due to that fact but then he might have to do that anyway since it was all Dunfermline" joked Jefferies. "There were a couple of decisions where the linesman couldn't give it."

In all the experiences of Jim Jefferies he had never encountered such a half time delay:-

"The other games were drawing to a finish and ours was just starting. When he played into added time I thought we were going to be here all night! Fortunately we got through the game and I don't think it made any difference.  At the end of the day he was a registered referee but he wasn't to make any decisions, if that's the rule then that's the rule. He just had to do his best and let us get through it.

"It was one of the Fife derbies. It was never going to be easy but I felt if we had got the second goal when we got the penalty we could have gone on to win much more comfortably."

Cowdenbeath Manager Colin Cameron submitted that his team got what they deserved:-

"We did not play well enough to get anything out of the game. It is a derby but didn't feel like one by the way the lads went about it, that was disappointing. We waited until about 55 minutes before we started pressing them high up the pitch and make them make mistakes."

The former Jambo was aggrieved that Callum Morris had not seen red midway through the second half:-

"Decisions changes games and I felt it was a sending off - a lunge, a two footed tackle but it wasn't given. So be it, we were still in the game. The second was an own goal and you just cannot help that. The third we had switched off a bit so it was disappointing."

It was Colin Cameron's clash with referee Kevin Clancy in 11th minute that caused the half time need to appeal to the crowd for a replacement match official. The Cowden gaffer merely chipped:-

"It is a good job he didn't get in the road! I am surprised that he managed to last to half time. You think you have seen it all in football but this is a first for me. Both Jim and I weren't too happy about somebody going on the line. We were told that if we cancelled the game, the clubs would run the risk of getting a fine.

"It is unprofessional, you are asking somebody who is a level six - a steward who works for Dunfermline - he never made any decisions anyway, he is just there. There was a time where the ref never saw one of their lads handballing it and he couldn't make a decision. It didn't help us on that occasion but it didn't cost us. It could have.

"The ref was going to be in false positions to compensate for the lack of linesman. For a First Division game that shouldn't happen. It happened and Dunfermline deserved to win the game."

Cameron also gave an update on keeper Thomas Flynn who accompanied Kevin Clancy to hospital in an ambulance from East End Park:-

"He must have taken a kick in the head when he went down for a low ball. He didn't realise that he had saved a penalty!"