Striker's own goal

Douglas Lowe

11 Dec 1989

Dunfermline 0, Hearts 2

HEARTS striker Wayne Foster will today be reflecting on two crass moments within three minutes against Dunfermline at East End Park which caused his second red card this season.

With John Robertson, who has been accustomed recently to a seat on the substitutes' bench, having started the game on Saturday and gone on to score the only two goals of the game, and John Colquhoun and Scott Crabbe, who replaced Robertson after 67 minutes, in such fine form, Foster may not find it easy to regain his place once clear of suspension.

Hearts are well off for wee danger men up front and have been described as extravagant for playing three of them at a time in away matches.

With Foster's departure just before half-time, however, they reverted to the more usual premier-division tactic of two.

Foster's first booking came in 39 minutes after he and Raymond Sharp both went down in the Dunfermline box.

The foul was given to the home side and the name of the Hearts man went into referee Tait's book for protesting.

If that decision was a little harsh, bearing in mind that Hearts had had two previous penalty claims turned down, there was no doubt about the second incident.

Foster made a late tackle on Grant Tierney in front of the stand-side linesman who called the referee over.

Foster looked skywards in despair, knowing that what was coming was an early bath.

Dunfermline must surely be taking a long, hard look at themselves this morning after their fourth blank sheet in a row.

Co-manager Jim Leishman's comment, that one or two chances were made in the second half, put a gloss on what was a fairly unimaginative performance up front.

The Hearts backline, which has conceded 22 goals this season, looked like being breached in that period only twice, Istvan Kozma in 51 minutes and substitute Ray Farningham in 72 minutes both narrowly off target.

Doug Rougvie, who limped off after half an hour, also had an opportunity after two minutes when, with a clear header from a Tommy Wilson free kick, he put the ball wide.

The visitors had more of the play and Robertson made two chances count.

The first came in 17min.

when he beat an offside trap to run on and score from a McPherson head flick.

Then he collected a loose ball after 63 minutes before running 20 yards to power a low drive past Ian Westwater.

Four other names went into the referee's book -- David McCreery and Alan McLaren of Hearts, and Dunfermline's Stuart Rafferty and Norrie McCathie, who was stretchered off near the end and taken to hospital for an X-ray on an ankle injury.

DUNFERMLINE -- Westwater, Wilson, Rougvie, McCathie, Tierney, Sharp, Smith, Rafferty, Jack, O'Boyle, Kozma.

Substitutes -- Gallagher, Farningham.

HEARTS -- Smith, McLaren, McKinlay, Levein, McCreery, McPherson, Colquhoun, Kidd, Foster, Robertson, Bannon.

Substitutes -- Crabbe, Kirkwood.

Referee -- R T Tait (East Kilbride).