Dunfermline Athletic 1 Airdrie Utd 3: Below-par Fifers give away more than they can afford

Football Writer

Monday 14 January 2013

OF the three teams pushing for promotion at the top of the Irn-Bru First Division, perhaps Dunfermline Athletic's need is the greatest.

Airdrie took the lead and never looked back

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Graeme Macpherson

Granted, neither Morton nor Partick Thistle are exactly flush with cash – and both clubs are also naturally desperate to get back to the top flight after a long time away – but both are relatively stable financially in comparison with Dunfermline, a club seemingly troubled by one cashflow problem after another at the moment.

A return to the Clydesdale Bank Premier League – should it still exist by the start of next season – would no doubt help ease the situation but to achieve that Jim Jefferies' side can surely not afford (no pun intended) to have too many weekends like this one. A home match against the team second bottom of the division, and winless in three and half months, had seemed like an ideal opportunity to consolidate Dunfermline's position at the top of the table but instead what followed was what Jefferies would later describe as "shocking" and striker Ryan Wallace, who scored his side's only goal, as "embarrassing".It could end up being something of a double whammy. As well as slipping three points behind Morton, the result could cause disenfranchised supporters to stay away when the next home game comes around and how Dunfermline need that revenue right now.The fans saved most of their wrath for referee Euan Norris on Saturday – unhappy with his decision to deny the home side what looked a stick-on penalty, then award Airdrie United one moments later – but later there would surely also have been gripes aired on just how poor Dunfermline played, especially in defence. Wallace, though, hoped the fans would stick with the team during these difficult times."Asking them to come back after that today is a bit embarrassing but we hope they do and we'll put a performance on for them the next time," the forward said. "Nobody from our team turned up. We're at that stage where we have to start winning games like this. We know that wasn't acceptable."If there was some good news to emerge from East End Park on Saturday it was that the players, after a delay, have now received their salaries in full. It would surely be understandable if the ongoing uncertainty about whether they will get paid on time each month started to have an effect on their morale or performances but Wallace was adamant that was not the case, despite Saturday's sloppy display."The boys have all been paid their wages," he confirmed. "The manager's been fantastic with the off the park stuff. He's kept us in the loop with everything that's been going on. We said that if they did that we're happy to go along with it and keep playing."For Airdrie, fighting for their lives at the other end of the table, this was a very welcome victory. They were the brighter side for most of the match, and two goals from Ryan Donnelly and a Paul Di Giacomo penalty maintained their three-point advantage over a resurgent Dumbarton. It was the final game of Grant Adam's loan spell before he returns to St Mirren and the goalkeeper was glad to go out on a high. "I'll go back to St Mirren now and have a chat with the manager there and hopefully I'll get an opportunity," he said. "My number one aim is to push Craig Samson out."

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Dunfermline Athletic 1 Airdrie Utd 3: Below-par Fifers give away more than they can afford

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