Dunfermline striker Andy Barrowman has revealed he would like nothing better than to score the winner against Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday and to celebrate with some champagne courtesy of one Jim Leishman.
The Pars’ director of football and Courier columnist has dined out for years on the fact that he was the last Dunfermline player to net a deciding goal against the Old Firm giants in Govan, in 1972.
He has offered six bottles of champagne to anyone in the Pars squad who can replicate the feat.
Barrowman, who has scored twice in the last two games, believes he is back on form after recovering from having his appendix removed at the start of October and is just the man to relieve Leish of his record and perhaps some Mumm or Piper-Heidsieck.
The striker said: ”I was really disappointed about needing the appendix op. I just woke up on the Friday morning in agony.
”We didn’t have a game because of the international break at the time and we were supposed to be playing a bounce match.
”But as I was being driven to the game, I passed out and had to be rushed to hospital. I was operated on that day.”
He added: ”It was a bit of fright for me and I was in a bad way, that’s for sure. It is a sore thing and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
”But having recovered, I have now started the last two games and have scored two as well.”
Barrowman said: ”The three points would mean everything to the club but I definitely wouldn’t say no to Leish’s champers if I could score a winner against Rangers.”
Barrowman, though, knows that if he or any other Pars player is to have a chance of ending the club’s Ibrox hoodoo, they will have to eliminate the individual errors that have plagued them since their return to the SPL.
Slack marking and an own goal cost them dear last Saturday against Aberdeen, as Dunfermline contrived to throw away a two-goal lead with just 10 minutes to go to leave themselves still waiting for their first home league win of the season.
But former Ross County striker Barrowman insists if they can cut out the mistakes, then the points will come.
He said: ”It was a tough one to take on Saturday. To come back from 1-0 down at half-time and go into a 3-1 lead with 10 minutes to go and then only draw was a sore one.
”It felt like a defeat to everyone in the dressing-room afterwards. The boys were absolutely gutted to lose those two late goals and the two points.”
He added: ”We are desperate to get that first home win, there’s no hiding that fact, but we don’t go into games with it preying on our minds. Other people talk about it but we don’t really mention it.
”We identified at the start of the season that our home form was important and we had to make East End Park a bit of a fortress so obviously we would like to get that first win and go on to pick up more but it isn’t something that is affecting the team’s performance.”
Barrowman said: ”I think we have been a bit unlucky at times but in the SPL if you make a mistake, more often than not, you get punished. That maybe doesn’t happen so much in the first division.
”So we just have to cut out the errors and we will start to pick up points.”
Photo Lynne Cameron/PA Wire