Dunfermline 2 Hearts 1

Up until the 57th minute the game, fought at tremendous pace, was very even but Andy Smith changed all that.

Keeper Gilles Rousset failed to hold a Dave Bingham drive and Smith slipped the loose ball into the corner of the net.

Then in the 68th minute Dunfermline stamped their new found superiority on the game with Andy Tod's header from a perfect Stewart Petrie cross.

The Pars could have had two more but for brilliant stops by Rousset in the 79th minute when he saved a thunderbolt from Allan Moore and a header from Smith.

The game started off at top speed and within the first seven minutes both keepers had been tested with Rousset just managing to finger away a Tod header.

In the 12th minute Hearts appealed for a penalty when Jim Hamilton appeared to have been brought down by Tod.

But referee Sandy Roy remained unmoved.

In the 20th minute Neil McCann broke through the Dunfermline defence on to a long ball from Dave Weir and rifled a shot from 18 yards that shaved the near upright.

Hearts then had a great escape when Moore slammed home a brilliant Petrie cross but Dave Bingham had already fouled Rousset as he tried to intercept Petrie's cross.

In the 49th minute Bingham threw away a great opportunity to put them further ahead when a Greg Shields cross found him, but he skied the ball over the bar.

Dunfermline finally took the lead in the 57th minute with a Smith goal and from then onwards Dunfermline had a decided superiority.

Tod's second goal in the 68th minute, heading home a perfect Petrie corner, came as no surprise.

Hearts used all three substitutes but couldn't find a scoring combination until seconds from time when Hamilton got his boot to a Neil McCann cross to grab a consolation goal.

Teams:

Dunfermline: Westwater, Shields, Miller, Tod, Barnett, Curran, Moore (Den Bieman 84), Bingham (Fraser 88), Smith, French, Petrie.

Subs Not Used: Lemajic.

Goals: Smith 57, Tod 68.

Hearts: Rousset, Frail, Pointon, Weir, Salvatori (McManus 69), Ritchie, McCann, Fulton, Robertson (Thomas 69), Cameron (Flogel 69), Hamilton.

Goals: Hamilton 90.

Att: 8,823

Ref: S Roy (Westhill).

Taken from sportinglife.com