For the Record

A club record in league matches, surpassing the record set in 1985/86 of 601 minutes.

I thought that I should try to set the record straight regarding the much-publicised 'club record' for shut outs at the weekend.

It is not a club record since there is clearly a small matter of a 4-0 League Cup defeat at St Mirren to take into account if you are describing a club record. It is, however, a club record in league matches, surpassing the record set in 1985/86 of 601 minutes. However, bizarrely there is a further twist in the tale.

Although it is a club league record, it is not a record for a single Pars goalkeeper. That record still belongs to Ian Westwater - just! When Westy went on the six match shut-out record in 1986 he had missed the previous game against Meadowbank injured.

Hamish McAlpine was in goals for Dunfermline that day and got roasted for his part in the 4-0 defeat. You therefore have to count Westy's minutes without conceding to the previous match, as well as the game after the six consecutive shut-outs and that gives you a total of 617 league minutes that he was unbeaten, which is still the best by a Pars keeper.

Dunfermline actually lost the last game of that season 3-2 on the ridiculous plastic pitch at Stirling, but went on to have four consecutive shut-outs at the start of the next season, thus giving him ten clean sheets in eleven league games.

Duncan Simpson
DAFC Programme Editor and Club Historian