Dunfermline Athletic snatched a point when all seemed lost against Arbroath as Craig Wighton’s 91st-minute header rescued a 1-1 draw at Gayfield.
Jay Bird had opened the scoring for the Red Lichties before a bizarre altercation with team-mate Jermaine Hylton earned him a second yellow card and a sending off in the 74th minute.
The man advantage gave the Pars encouragement and their waves of late pressure paid dividends to maintain their four-point lead in fourth in the SPFL Championship table.
Adding insult to injury
Dunfermline will be hopeful the forthcoming new year brings new luck.
When it comes to the number of injuries the Pars have suffered this season so far, it can only be taken that manager James McPake has at some point walked under a ladder.
Or had a black cat crossing his path. Or opened his umbrella indoors.
When Chris Hamilton stooped to head the ball clear inside a crowded box against Arbroath, it was instantly clear he had taken a sore one from Jay Bird’s outstretched boot.
When McPake later revealed the stand-in defender and captain had been taken to hospital to have his cheekbone checked out, it betrayed the seriousness of the latest injury.
Only minutes after Hamilton had been helped from the field, Lewis McCann pulled up chasing a chipped pass forward.
When he clutched the back of his leg, a hamstring problem was evident.
It is a curse that has followed the Pars all campaign, afflicting to varying degrees Kane Ritchie-Hosler, Kyle Benedictus, Matty Todd, Deniz Mehmet, Rhys Breen, Sam Fisher, Ben Summers, Andrew Tod and Michael O’Halloran.
McPake would perhaps be right to think that without those absences his team would be in a better position.
He will be hopeful the advent of 2024 will change fortunes.
A plan of attack
McPake confessed himself that it looked like his team could play all day without scoring in Arbroath.
He described their performance as flat and it resulted in a blunt attack.
After deploying a two-man strike force against Airdrie and Partick Thistle, he returned to a one-man focal point with two ‘number tens’ in behind.
For the time they were on the pitch together, Matty Todd and Owen Moffat were peripheral figures in behind the isolated McCann.
Dunfermline Athletic boss James McPake’s injury woes continue as Chris Hamilton is taken to hospital and Lewis McCann faces spell out https://t.co/cBrXQcNbKt pic.twitter.com/2KxToBot3Z
— The Courier Sport (@thecouriersport) December 23, 2023
Todd and Moffat are skilful and forceful forces in the forward areas, but it was not their kind of game at Gayfield.
Alex Jakubiak was introduced for McCann but was a frustrated figure and, although he brings plenty other attributes to the team, he looks like he could do with a goal to boost his confidence.
Wighton’s late leveller makes him Dunfermline’s top scorer in the league with just five goals – three of which have come against his former club, Arbroath.
It was the second successive game the Pars have struggled in front of goal and it may be timely for McPake that the January transfer window is approaching.
Welcome late show
Dunfermline produced the kind of dramatic comeback that rivals Raith Rovers have made their trademark this season when Wighton struck with time ticking down.
The 90 minutes had come and gone when the substitute rose highest to meet a Joe Chalmers corner and head in from close range.
More often this season, the Pars have been on the wrong end of late goals.
Against Dundee United, strikes at the death have twice cost the Fifers dearly – preventing a victory in August and a draw last month.
Against Raith in October, conceding in injury-time left them tasting defeat in a Fife derby.
James McPake’s men are not without their own fighting spirit in the closing stages, twice eking out draws with Inverness Caley Thistle with goals in the final 10 minutes.
But they left it even later at Gayfield and could even have won it deeper into injury with another chance that fell to Wighton.
It would have been a relief for the East End Park men to be on the right side of a late rally on this occasion.
On the road
When it was pointed out to McPake ahead of the Arbroath game that his team had enjoyed a positive away record in the league this season, the Dunfermline manager feared it would prove a jinx.
It was looking that way after the part-time hosts took a first-half lead and appeared the more likely to get the next goal.
But McPake’s impressive data as manager on the road with Dunfermline was maintained when Wighton got his head to Joe Chalmers’ corner.
The Pars have now lost just twice in eight away games this term, and were defeated only once in the league on their travels last season.
Whilst the away form is pleasing, an upturn in fortunes at home, where the Fifers have won only four of 11 outings, would give their play-off chances a significant boost.
