On the second day of the Scottish League One season Dunfermline faced Edinburgh having both won their opening matches.
James McPake’s Pars came away with one of their more convincing performances to date.
A double from Lewis McCann – who made his timely return in Dunfermline’s last match – and another from debutant Chris Mochrie sealed the points.
At the time you could be forgiven for seeing it as a routine for the league favourites against a newly promoted side.
When the clubs met again in October Alan Maybury’s side were top of the league having played one game more than the Pars.
Top spot at stake again
Now, when the teams face off for the third time this weekend, the capital side have the chance to leapfrog the league leaders.
“We’re halfway through the league now and they’re second for a reason,” said McPake.
“They’ve kept their form going, they score a lot of goals. We know it’s going to be a tough game.”
“They’ve recruited really well since they came up, they’ve done really well since they came up,” he added.
The Dunfermline manager said following the second meeting between the sides that he was a little surprised with Edinburgh’s approach that day.
The visitors sat in deep at East End Park and were eventually undone by a Liam Fontaine own goal.
Echoing his returning striker Kevin O’Hara, he isn’t surprised that they are where they are.
Closest rivals
While much title challenge chat continues to include Falkirk it is Edinburgh that have persisted as the Pars’ closest rivals.
“They have been most of the season,” said McPake.
“The got another great result at Airdrie there after going two goals down.
“I still think it’s too early to say ‘this will make our season, this could break our season’.
“Every team is still got their own fight for what they’re trying to do and we can only concentrate on us.”
Saturday sees the best defence in the SPFL come up against its third-highest scorers.
Edinburgh have scored 42 times this season – with around a third (35%) of those have come in three matches against Airdrie – only Celtic and Rangers have scored more.
Stout defence
Dunfermline meanwhile have conceded just 11 league goals this season.
It is no accident that the Pars have conceded so few goals this season.
“I think that was evident from the first day we came in that it was something we needed to do,” said McPake.
“So far we’ve been pretty good defensively, but that’s as a team.
“Every week we work on the strengths of the opposition, in terms of what they can do.
“But there’s a big focus on how we can hurt them as well because we want to go there and win the game.
“We did that when we weren’t down [the last time], we were very dominant that day, it was a good performance.”
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