In the first half we underperformed. Dave Barnett did have the ball in the net early on but there were few complaints when the goal was disallowed for offside. Killie encamped in our half and two goals was a fair return for the amount of territorial advantage.

Pat Nevin`s shot got a deflection in 24 minutes and then 11 minutes later he flighted a lovely shot beyond Westie to make it 2-0. Andy SMITH got one back in the 40th minute and really the hopes had to be realistic that we could get the deficit back in the second half. All these hopes were simply extinguished with the sending off of Dave Barnett after 50 minutes and a penalty miss from Hamish French eight minutes thereafter.

The Pars had most of the second half and the one man disadvantage was rarely noticed. The few chances that fell Kilmarnock’s way were selfishly hoarded by Pat (on a hattrick) Nevin and to match shy Paul Wright who blasted a good chance over.

The Pars deserved a draw but the scoreline stayed 2-1.

The Kilmarnock Chairman claimed that Andy Smith had been subject of a £300,000- bid from Kilmarnock this week. The bid had been turned down by Bert Paton.

Hard to pick a Pars man of the match but have to admit that Harry Curran had a good game at right back when we were down to 10 men.

DUNFERMLINE: - Westwater, Den Bieman, Shields, Tod, Barnett, Curran, Moore (Shaw 76), Duarte (Britton 83), Smith, French, Petrie (Bingham 76).
Scorer:Smith (40)
Yellow Cards: Smith (swearing at the ref)
Red Cards: Barnett (One caution and one incident that only the stand side linesman saw)
Referee: K Clark (Paisley)
Attendance 6667
League Position 5th
Next match v Dundee United (away) Saturday 6th December 1997