Hearts broken in fevered extra time by late goal Moore puts Dunfermline through to next round in Coca-Cola Cup

Paul Sinclair
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10 Sep 1997

Dunfermline ...........1 Hearts ............0 (aet) WE know that robbery can be 'daylight.' Dunfermline proved last night it can also be 'floodlit.' They defeated Hearts 1-0 in their Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final at East End Park, snapping up one of their very few chances with just five minutes of extra time remaining.

In contrast, Hearts had enough chances to win the tournament as well as this tie in even the first quarter of the match but, despite dominating it, they can now only reflect on chances spurned.

''I think we were fortunate to win in the end,'' said Dunfermline manager Bert Paton, who appeared almost embarrassed at the result.

''I have to thank our goalkeeper Ian Westwater and the back four for that.

''I was praying that we could get to half-time on level terms when I spoke to them,'' Paton said.

He was not only lucky to be on level terms at that stage, he was fortunate still to be in the tournament.

''We dominated the match but they got the break that eluded us,'' said Paton's opposite number, Jim Jefferies.

''They got one chance and they took it but they were outplayed by a good Hearts side.

I could not have asked for more from my players,'' Jefferies said.

That one chance fell to Dunfermline's Allan Moore when, with five minutes of extra time remaining he picked up an Andy Smith through ball just inside the penalty area and fired it into the goal.

''Seeing the ball hit the back of the net was as good a sight as seeing my children being born,'' Moore enthused afterwards.

Moore's children are important to him, if a shade expensive.

He bet his son a playstation if they beat Celtic earlier this season, which they duly did.

Thankfully for Moore, the CD player, which went along with his man of the match award, will be sufficient reward for his children this time, without him touching his win bonus.

That bonus was one that none of the 11,000 crowd would have predicted the Dunfermline players would receive.

While they hardly had an attempt at goal in the first half, Hearts had at least six clear-cut chances which only a mixture of a lack of composure in front of goal and some magnificent goalkeeping from Westwater stopped them being converted into goals.

Dunfermline and Hearts are two clubs who are said to have ''a fine cup tradition''.

Considering neither side has won a trophy of any significance since the 1960s you might wonder how that tradition is kept alive.

The answer is in performances like last night's where the approach is less tactics learned or borrowed from the subtle Continentals but rather more from a hammer and tongs.

This was old fashioned, blood and snotters football.

After only six minutes of the match, Westwater made the first of his many vital saves when Stefano Salvatori hammered in a shot from 20 yards which the goalkeeper blocked.

Jim Hamilton missed the loose ball completely but his embarrassment was saved by the linesman's offside flag.

Hearts had Dunfermline pinned back in the last third of the field for the entire opening quarter and the home side seemed unable to think of a way of staunching the attacks which flowed towards them.

If there was any subtlety on show in a pulsating match, it was from Neil McCann and Colin Cameron of Hearts.

Twice in the first half McCann was denied a goal after some forcing runs.

In the first, after 18 minutes, he took the ball from 10 yards within his own half to the edge of the Dunfermline penalty area, but his shot was just wide.

Eighteen minutes later, a similar run resulted in a more accurate shot, but Westwater was at his best as he clawed the ball away in mid-air.

Two minutes after that, the goalkeeper again pulled off a superlative save, this time from a 20-foot shot from Stevie Fulton.

After Paton's words of wisdom at the break, Dunfermline had a brief 10 minutes in which they threatened the Hearts goal, but it was still the Edinburgh side who were creating the better chances in a second half which they grew to dominate.

In the 66th minute, Colin Cameron should have had a better climax to his run on the right wing when, after cutting inside and beating three defenders, he ballooned the ball over the bar from the edge of the area.

Extra time seemed an inevitability but McCann could have killed off the tie with seven minutes remaining.

He played a delicate one-two with Adam on the edge of the penalty area but his drive was just within the range of Ian Westwater's fingertips as he dived full length.

If there is one moment, that Hearts will regret in particular from this match it was with the very last kick of the ball.

Adam found himself through and almost alone with only Westwater to beat.

Unfortunately he tried to hit the ball under the goalkeeper who had already decided to dive low.

The pattern of the match changed little in extra time with Adam seeing efforts on goal blocked and McCann and Cameron seeing the chances they created spurned by ungrateful colleagues.

It was then that Dunfermline, with their rare attack, scored to take themselves through to the semi-finals of the Coca-Cola cup.

''Maybe our name was on the cup tonight,'' Paton said.

''I remember being in the team that last won the Scottish Cup and in that run there were a couple of games we shouldn't have won but did.'' No one in the Hearts camp will disagree that his judgment of the match was correct - no matter who he thinks eventually will win the tournament.

Teams: Dunfermline - Westwater, Shields, Fleming, Tod, Barnett, Curran, Moore, Bingham, Smith, French, Petrie.

Subs - Dem Bieman, C Miller, M Millar.

Hearts - Rousset, McManus, Pointon, Weir, Salvatori, Ritchie, McCann, Fulton, Hamilton, Cameron, Adam.

Subs - Robertson, Flogel, Locke.

Referee - M McCurry (Glasgow)

Taken from the Herald