Dunfermline's remarkable average age figures revealed

Dunfermline fielded the youngest team in senior Scottish football at the weekend as they climbed three places in the table.

The Pars battled to a crucial 3-2 victory over Hamilton Accies that lifted them above their opponents, Morton and Raith Rovers into sixth place in the table.

Goals from Matty Todd, Josh Cooper and Aaron Comrie did the damage in front of a crowd of 4,286 at East End Park.

And it was all done with not only the most youthful line-up in the division but also the whole of the SPFL.

Dunfermline midfielder Matty Todd gets plays a pass under pressure. — Matty Todd (left) is one of Dunfermline’s more experienced players at just 23. Image: Ewan Bootman / SNS Group.

Goal-scorer Comrie, 27, and skipper Kyle Benedictus, 33, were the outliers in a team otherwise made up of teenagers and early twenty-somethings.

Manager James McPake said after the full-time whistle: “I’ve not looked at it, but the age of the team must have been ridiculously low.”

So, Courier Sport have crunched the numbers for the Pars boss.

They show that Dunfermline’s average age – aided by starting berths for 18-year-olds Taylor Sutherland and Sam Young – was 22.9.

‘Bring own players through’

With keeper Tobi Oluwayemi just 21, Kieran Ngwenya, Ewan Otoo and Kane Ritchie-Hosler all 22, and Chris Hamilton, Lewis McCann and Todd all 23, there are plenty of players with their best years ahead of them.

Even substitutes Cooper, 21, and Dapo Mebude, 23, are in the same age bracket.

“We want to bring our own players through,” said McPake, who will be without Hamilton for Saturday’s Fife derby because of suspension.

“And then, recruitment-wise, the younger players we bring in, we want to develop them, like a Josh Edwards [who was sold to Charlton Athletic in the summer].

“I know I’ve been criticised for it before, but that’s the way it works. You then move them on, and you bring the next one in, and you try and keep that going.

Kyle Benedictus points and shouts. — Skipper Kyle Benedictus was Dunfermline’s only player over the age of 30 against Hamilton Accies. Image: Ewan Bootman / SNS Group.

“I thought just for our academy, for our football club, with the team that started, and then the ones that come on, [it was great].

“It’s the way of this football club.

“The first day I met the owners, the first day I met David [Cook, chief executive], that’s what they wanted to do at this football club, was produce young players and develop young players.

“And I think [Saturday] was a great view of that, and the work that’s getting done.”

Meanwhile, by contrast, Raith Rovers – Dunfermline’s rivals and this weekend’s opponents – had the second-oldest starting line-up in the division for Saturday’s 3-0 defeat away to Falkirk.