Goalie Cammy Bell was the hero with an amazing first half hat-trick of penalty saves as Dundee United beat Dunfermline to chalk up their first away win of the season.
Bell first came to the rescue when he brilliantly palmed away Gavin Reilly’s kick after William Edjenguele had been penalised for a ninth minute foul on Lee Ashcroft.
Kick number two came on 25 minutes when Frank van der Struijk tripped Reilly after stumbling as he tried to clear a loose ball.
Despite being injured in the build up to that, Bell performed more heroics when he dived to his right to beat away Nicky Clark’s attempt.
And unbelievably he was unbeatable a third time when Paul Dixon was harshly hauled up for hand ball just after the half hour.
This time Paul McMullan was handed the kicking duties, but he could only look on in disbelief as Bell again gone down to keep the ball out of his net.
In the midst of all that United went ahead in the 21st minute as a neat passing move gave Tope Obadeyi room to cross from the left.
The ball should have been cleared, but Ryan Williamson fluffed his kick and that allowed Simon Murray to turn and fire home from five yards.
Just over a minute into the second half it was 2-0 as Nick van der Velden slipped the ball to Tony Andreu and he made it two goals in two games with a 16 yard shot that trickled over the line after a brave attempt by home ‘keeper David Hutton to save.
The Pars pulled one back through Michael Paton four minutes later and in a game that seemed to have everything the Tangerines were left hanging on when Dixon was sent off for a second bookable offence just before the hour mark.
They did and even found time for Andreu to add number three in injury time.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.