Par for the Course
How Dunfermline Athletic became the cup specialists of Scottish football.
Any football team that reaches three major cup finals in four years deserves some form of recognition. Unfortunately, when you lose all three to the same opponent and come from somewhere provincially forgettable like Fife, that recognition can be hard to come by. Dunfermline weren’t a one off fluke side though, this was a team that regularly punched above their weight and knocked good sides out of cup competitions. As I was growing up in Fife during the Pars heyday, I could appreciate the Pars achievement in real time but now let’s try and nostalgically restore some praise for one of the best cup teams in Scottish football history.
Dunfermline Athletic were enjoying a seven year long stay in the Scottish top flight after being promoted in 2000. Jimmy Calderwood had arrived from coaching in the Netherlands, where he had also been a player, to take over in 1999. Calderwood would take Dunfermline to heights only previously seen in the 1960s. Under the legendary Scottish manager, Jock Stein, the Pars had won the 1961 Scottish Cup and followed that up under George Farm by winning the 1968 Scottish Cup and reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners Cup. Dunfermline, under Calderwood, would finish fifth in 2002/03 thanks to 19 goals from their star striker and hometown boy, Stevie Crawford. The following 2003/04 campaign would be Dunfermline’s most successful season in the modern era.
In 2003/04, Dunfermline’s local lad Crawford would score another 13 goals and cement his first-choice place in the Scotland national team. He would be joined by the Lithuanian lynchpin in central defence, Andrius Skerla, who was arguably Dunfermline’s most important player. Calderwood’s team played attractive attacking football with an emphasis on set pieces from dead ball situations but were tactically naïve at defending and would finish with a negative goal difference that season.
Skerla, Lithuania’s most capped player, helped minimise the damage with his spectacular goal line clearances and tendency to score goals with his arse. Barry Nicholson, a Rangers reject, found a home with the Pars where he could demonstrate his pace on the wing and assist the attacking play that become customary viewing at East End Park. Nicholson also earned an international call-up from Scotland due to his fine performances.
Calderwood and his corps of full internationals would guide Dunfermline to fourth in the league and qualify for the UEFA Cup. The Pars took their fine league form into that season’s edition of the Scottish Cup as sides such as Dundee United and Inverness were dispatched and the Fifers were set up for a final at Hampden against the league champions, Celtic. The Hoops would prove to be a bridge too far for the Pars as, despite Skerla scoring an optimistic opener, Celtic had assembled their strongest team since their own heyday in the 1960s. With players such as Henrik Larsson and Stiliyan Petrov and manager Martin O’Neill, Celtic had won the league comfortably and had knocked out Barcelona in European competition that same season. Still, fourth place and Scottish Cup runners-up medals represented the peak of Pars performance. Calderwood’s work earned him a move to Aberdeen and Stevie Crawford left his hometown to prove himself in English football at Plymouth Argyle. Dunfermline’s performances would dramatically decline as a direct result and their league status would immediately come under threat.
The 2004/05 season would prove to be a relegation battle and a change in scope for Pars ambitions. Davie Hay succeeded Calderwood but couldn’t match his attacking style and the issue of conceding too many goals failed to be addressed. With only three games remaining and Dunfermline rooted to the bottom of the table, Hay was sacked and the Pars turned to a local legend for safety.
If Fife had a king, Jim Leishman would hold the crown. Leishman, a man who likes to speak in verse and thinks he can fly, was a former Pars manager who, like a Scottish Jimmy Hill, had worked many publicity campaigns to rebrand the club and increase the average gate of fans attending. He was still highly regarded by the club and local community and the Pars brought him back as their Director of Football in 2003.
With Hay sacked and the club needing a saviour, Leishman stepped back into the Pars dugout. Only three games remained but Leishman quickly turned around the Pars fortunes and led them to safety with wins over Dundee United and Dundee. Thanks to yet another Jim Leishman publicity promotion, I was in attendance for the 5–0 win over Dundee that saw them condemned to relegation instead of Dunfermline that season.
The 2005/06 season under Leishman would fail to see the Pars climb back up the table as Skerla left for Russia and Nicholson joined up with Calderwood at Aberdeen. Admittedly, the Pars were saved from any relegation tension as, although they finished 11th again, Livingston were considerably worse off that season and the gap between them and Dunfermline never closed. Leishman did however return the Pars back to their cup specialist status as he guided them past sides such as Hibernian, Kilmarnock and a plucky Gretna side to a Hampden return in the 2006 Scottish League Cup Final. The cup final would be a rematch against the league champions, Celtic, and unfortunately, for the Pars, a replay of the result as Celtic beat the Fifers 3–0. This result was only to be expected as the gulf between Dunfermline and Celtic, who again won the league comfortably, was demonstrated only a month earlier when Celtic thrashed the Pars 8–1 at East End Park.
2006 would see the return of local favourite Stevie Crawford to the club, however Leishman wouldn’t last much longer as manager of the Pars as he stepped aside in favour of, future Republic of Ireland boss, Stephen Kenny. Leishman would have one final parting gift for the Pars faithful as, almost by accident, he signed a young centre back from Ivory Coast called Sol Bamba who would take the Skerla role of being the team’s most influential player from the back.
Bamba had been let go by PSG and Leishman is alleged to have confused him with another player prior to signing him but he would go on to be one of Scotland’s best young centre backs for Dunfermline and Hibernian before building his reputation down south with Leicester City and Cardiff City and becoming a regular feature in one of Africa’s best national teams.
Kenny would continue to follow the Pars course through the cups as Dunfermline went on their most impressive run yet. The Pars would first knock out a Rangers side, who would go on to be UEFA Cup runners-up the following year, after a 3–2 thriller. Late winners would then become the narrative of Dunfermline’s cup run. 1–0 wins over both Edinburgh sides, Hearts and Hibs, that came with little time remaining meant that Dunfermline had reached their third major cup final in four years after knocking out, arguably, 3 of the 4 biggest sides in Scottish football. Their opponent in the 2007 Scottish Cup Final was familiar to them as Celtic completed the set of four and this final would complete Dunfermline and Celtic’s cup final trilogy.
Yet again, a late winner would dictate the result only this time Dunfermline would be the victims of heartbreak. In what was the closest final of the three, Dunfermline came undone by a toe-poke in the 84th minute from Celtic fringe player, Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe. It was the first and only goal of his “illustrious” career which consisted of only 6 appearances for Celtic, including this one and only appearance in the Scottish Cup.
Losing the 2007 Scottish Cup Final to a late winner would have been enough of a cruel twist for most clubs. Dunfermline weren’t done though with torturing their fans as the 2006/07 season came down to yet another relegation battle. Unfortunately, a run of four straight wins came to nought after a 2–1 loss to Inverness and falling prey to another late winner. The Pars seven year stay in the Scottish Premier League came to end in 2007.
However, cup finals are par for the course with Dunfermline Athletic and they reached the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup in their first season back in the lower leagues. They lost, of course. Can’t win them all.
