FOUR years ago Ryan Williamson suffered the agony of being consigned to the third tier of Scottish football for another season when Dunfermline were taken apart by local rivals Cowdenbeath.
The Pars were humbled in the Championship play-off final, losing 3-0 on the day and 4-1 on aggregate, leaving them in League One and utterly distraught.
Now Williamson and his team-mates believe they are about to embark on a six-game series that can take them back to the top flight.
They confirmed their play-off place with a dismantling of Dumbarton in which Williamson scored his first goal for the club under the gaze of a rather famous spectator in the shape of Sir Alex Ferguson.
And the 22-year-old believes they can take care of Dundee United in the quarter-finals, then oust Livingston in the semis before triumphing over the 11th Premiership side, currently Partick Thistle.
On the evidence of their strong finish to the season this is not a fanciful notion.
However, Dunfermline will have to finally snap out of a winless run against Dundee United that stretches 13 matches back to 2011.
Williamson said: “The manager told us it’s a great achievement to get into the play-offs but we want to kick on now that we’re there and we go into [tomorrow] night really high in confidence that we can come through the tie.
“It’s up to us to go and get the club back up to the Premiership. With the quality we’ve got in the dressing toom we don’t fear anyone.
“I think my celebrations might be a bit better if we were to do that, but we can’t get carried away with ourselves.
“There have been some tough times in recent years. I played in both legs of the Cowdenbeath game.
“East End was sold out for the second leg and we got a bit of a doing which was devastating.
“But times are good again and hopefully with one last push we can get the club back to where they belong.
“United have been our bogey team but we were the better side the last time we played them so if we prepare right then hopefully we can put in a big performance to gain an advantage for the second leg.”
Dumbarton were not helped by having Craig Barr sent off in nine minutes for taking out Andy Ryan – a decision they will appeal today– but they were beaten comfortably.
Kallum Higginbotham scored two great goals after being set up by the excellent Fraser Aird, who scored the third just before half-time.
Then came Williamson’s big moment when he latched onto Joe Cardle’s pass to score from close range and raced away with his arms in the air in utter jubilation.
The right-back said: “I’ve been saying that I ‘m going to score for a few weeks now but it hasn’t happened.
“I told the gaffer and Sandy Clark at half-time that I would do it – so it was never in doubt really.
“It was a great feeling, as you can tell by the celebration, and hopefully it’s not another 111 games until the next one.
“I hadn’t played out the celebration – I think taking my top off would have been too far – but it was my first goal since youth football.
“I’ve taken a lot of stick, understandably, because it’s been too long. Some of the coaches were saying ‘are you going to score your first goal before you’re 30?
“I managed to get a picture with Sir Alex Ferguson before the game so hopefully he can come along on Tuesday night as well.
“He’s a lucky mascot for me!
“It was fantastic to meet him and I’m so pleased that he saw my first goal. Maybe he’ll put a word in with Man United!”
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