Dunfermline Athletic kicked off their second consecutive Scottish League One season with a frustrating goalless draw at home to Brechin City.
The Pars welcomed three new faces, with centre-back Gregor Buchanan given his league debut for the Pars alongside goalkeeper Ryan Scully and striker Michael Moffat, who was particularly impressive.
Second only to Rangers last season, six places and 21 points better than Saturday’s visitors, the gulf in class was palpable early on and Moffat, who arrived in the summer from Ayr United, was denied a brace ofclose-range chances to open his account for the club, first by Brechin centre-back Paul McLean and then goalkeeper Graeme Smith.
“It was total domination,” said Pars boss Jim Jefferies. “Brechin got behind the ball to be fair to them. They got behind the ball quickly.”
Some lovely one and two-touch football soon after nearly carved out a chance for Moffat after a dangerous delivery from captain Andy Geggan. The one-way traffic continued and visiting keeper Smith was lucky not to pick up a booking when he clattered Moffat after a speculative through-ball from Buchanan.
“We’ve got some experience in our side, but any time we did get through I thought Smith performed miracles,” continuedJefferies. “We just had to be patient. At half-time I said one goal will win this game.”
Evidently opposite number Ray McKinnon delivered the same message to his players, because Brechin came out with renewed vigour after the interval. The City striker Robert Thomson nearly broke the deadlock just five minutes into the second half when he got on the end of a Colin Hamilton cross but this time it was Ryan Scully’s turn to impress, racing off his line to save.
“Ray saying they dominated the game was probably a wee bit tongue in cheek. They did a job and they made it difficult for us,” Jefferies said. “They had a couple of chances. A couple of great balls came into the box and they had the chance to get on the end of them but it wasn’t to be.”
At the other end, Ross Forbes forced another good save from Smith with a free-kick which looked destined for the top corner, before turning provider for Geggan, who fizzed a volley just wide.
“The free-kick came close but not close enough,” Forbes said at full-time.
“You know, we had nearly all of the possession in that game.
“We just couldn’t break them down. That was the only thing missing. That’s how they came out today. You could see them celebrating a point at the end so it just shows you the difference in mentalities.”
Brechin nearly stole the points in the dying minutes when Thomson sold Lewis Martin a dummy in the box before beating Scully, only to see his effortcrash back off the post, yet there was little question that Brechin were happier than Dunfermline to hear referee Euan Anderson’s full-time whistle with the final score 0-0.
“People respect Dunfermline,” Jefferies said.
“We’re not always going to get to go and play. Teams do that so they can hopefully hit us on the break and they nearly did it at the end there when they hit the post.
“They could have won but that would have been a travesty.”