DESPITE seven goals and a comeback to rival that of David Bowie, everyone who spoke to reporters after Dumbarton's revival at East End Park was talking about what happens next for Dunfermline Athletic.
By 5pm today we will know if the winding-up order obtained by HMRC over a tax bill of £135,000 will result in the club entering administration, or liquidation. Or will Gavin Masterton, the majority shareholder, a key creditor in the £8m debt to directors past and present, and the financier at the centre of a spider's web of loans and ancillary companies in which the club is trapped, cut them a little more slack?
From the victorious away dressing room, celebrating a remarkable win that brings them within striking distance of Cowdenbeath and the safety of eighth position, there were some new perspectives on the story. Dumbarton's rookie manager, Ian Murray, began pre-season with Dunfermline, going through his paces under Jim Jefferies.
"I trained with them for seven or eight weeks; I look back and it looks like I dodged a bullet," he said. "To take away a club from people who have supported it for years is very tough."
Steven McDougall scored the first and fourth goals for Dumbarton and spent three years at Dunfermline before this season.
"It's a shame what's happening here, but we had to switch off from that over the 90 minutes," he said. "I've got a lot of friends here and hopefully they can pull through.
"It's too big a club to die, so hopefully something gets sorted out. It was always a well-run club when I was here. Now it's painful to watch."
McDougall was dropped by Dunfermline when the club were relegated from the Clydesdale Bank Premier League at the end of last season, the act that brought down a house of cards. Central to that fate was a season-ending injury to Paul Gallacher, the former Scotland goalkeeper in his third spell at Dunfermline.
He tried to focus on the pain closest to the surface – a fine goalkeeper's pride damaged by the concession of four goals and some defending described as "unacceptable". However, deeper concerns exist.
"Of course what's going on off the park is in the back of the boys' minds, but to lose goals in that manner is still very disappointing," he said. "We can't blame it on the off-the-park stuff. But it's a trying time and we are still in the dark regarding what's going on, but we know this club could be going belly up. I live in the town. I've a lot of friends who are supporters of this club and Dunfermline is dying on its knees in front of them. I just hope somebody can come in with a rescue package.
"Jim Leishman spoke to us on Friday and told us that the money has to be paid by 5pm on Monday but there are no funds to pay it. We were told it was up to Gavin Masterton. It's in his hands. It's not looking great.
"We are just hoping someone can rescue the club or even keep us going until the end of the season, and then we can take it from there. Let's just pray something happens or it's going to be a long summer in Dunfermline."
Gallacher was asked if the SFA or the SFL might be moved to provide some short-term support.
"They've not done a thing yet, have they? Nobody has helped at all. We are trying to do it ourselves and there are a lot of guys working so hard and trying every avenue. But the league won't help us. There's no protocol in place to do anything to help out. It's up to ourselves and any potential investors to come in and turn this sorry sight around. It's heartbreaking. Living in the town I see grown men crying, upset that this is potentially the end of their club."
The winning manager called it correctly when he spoke to his players at the end of the game.
"I said to the boys, probably the next few days will be full of the hard times Dunfermline face, but the fact remains we came here and beat a very good team."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article