Club History | Season 2015-2016
League One Champions and celebrations our return to the Championship in March with five games to spare.
After the abject failure of the previous season, it was obvious that it had been too much too soon for John Potter. The board learnt by their mistake and appointed an experienced manager, who had already had success in the division. That man was Allan Johnston who had done well with Queen of the South, before a short spell at Kilmarnock. He brought with him, as assistant Sandy Clark, who had both played for and coached The Pars in the past. Everyone was delighted that John Potter remained at the Club and re-commenced his fine work with the younger players.
As would be expected, there was a big turnaround of playing staff, especially amongst those out of contract. Gregor Buchanan, Ross Drummond, Ryan Goodfellow, Finn Graham, Kyle McAusland, Gavin McMillan, Scott Mercer, Ross Millen, Declan O`Kane, Jonathan Page, Allan Smith, Andy Stirling, Ryan Thomson, Alex Whittle, Stuart Urquhart, Jim Paterson and Andrew
Barrowman all left and Ryan Scully was recalled to Partick Thistle. Paul George returned to Celtic and Lewis Allan to Hibs.
On the way in were Calum Fordyce and Jason Talbot from Livingston, goalkeeper David Hutton from Ayr United, Michael Paton from Queen of the South and giant centre half Ben Richards-Everton from Partick Thistle. Before the competitive games began, two players returned to the Club who were to be major stars as the season progressed. The highly popular Joe Cardle returned from Ross County and keeper Sean Murdoch returned from Rochester Rhinos in the US.
It was still July as the serious business got started with a comfortable 4-1 win at Gayfield in the Challenge Cup. Two goals from Faissal el Bakhtaoui and one each from Michael Moffat
and Ryan Wallace earned the victory. Saturday 1st August found Dunfermline at home to Cowdenbeath, in the League Cup and a 5-1 victory saw The Pars through. The League campaign got off to a flier with a 6-1 win at Brechin. Pars fans were in dreamland, the following week when Cowdenbeath were thrashed 7-1 in the League at East End Park. Star of the show had been Faiss who had scored two goals in each of the opening four matches. He scored again when Forfar were beaten 3-0 at Station Park in the Challenge Cup.
A trip to Peterhead spoilt the perfect start as The Blue Toon won 2-1 but the following week brought Championship side Dundee to East End in the League Cup and they were outplayed as two more goals from Faiss and one from Joe Cardle saw The Pars home 3-1. The same score finished the month nicely at home to Stranraer and Athletic were top of the table.
September started well with a 4-0 win at Forfar and the following day Celtic and Dunfermline marked the 30th anniversary of Jock Stein`s death, by holding a charity match and dinner in Dunfermline. There were many stars in attendance, both on and off the pitch. The Pars had, amongst others Marco Ruitenbeek, Andrius Skerla and Istvan Kozma. Also playing were Scott Thomson, Barry Nicholson, Stevie Crawford and the management team of Allan
Johnston and John Potter. Stewart Petrie, Gary Mason, Jason Dair and evergreen Hamish French joined with big favourites John Watson and Ross Jack. The scorers for Dunfermline were
David Bingham and, inevitably, Winker. Celtic featured Scottish film stars James McAvoy and
Martin Compston along with Tom Boyd, Jackie McNamara, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Neil
Lennon and Mark Burchill. There was a huge cheer from both sets of fans for Stylian Petrov,
still recovering from serious illness. The excellent souvenir programme contained some anecdotes from Pars who had played under Jock at East End Park. The best of them was from Alex Edwards, who told of how he had treated himself to a car with his signing on fee. He had a
minor bump with it and when he got it back from the garage, he could only get it to do 50mph. He took it back to complain only to find that Jock had instructed the mechanic to put a governor on it so that it would not go any faster.
Two new signings were made before the closure of the transfer window with Shaun Rooney and Mickael Antoine Curier joining the ranks. A surprise was in store for Dunfermline when they lost 2-0 at home to Ayr United but they were back to form the following week with a 5-0 demolition of Stenhousemuir at Ochilview. The Pars were unlucky to go out of the League Cup at Tannadice 1-3. The last game of the month brought a visit from Airdrie but, despite starts for new signings Rhys McCabe and Marc McAusland, The Diamonds went home with a share of the points after a 1-1 draw.
Albion Rovers were the first visitors in October. The Coatbridge club, very well managed by Darren Young were competing at a higher level for the first time for ages and had Scott McBride, Paul Willis and Andrew Barrowman in their side. Goals from Faiss, Joe Cardle and Rhys McCabe produced a 3-0 win. A poor performance in the next match saw The Pars exit the Challenge Cup, thrashed 4-0 by St Mirren in Paisley. A comfortable 3-0 win at Stranraer was followed by a 4-0 win at home to Forfar. The month ended with a 0-0 stalemate away to Cowdenbeath.
Another 0-0 draw got November under way, this time at home to Peterhead. There then followed three away games. Lanarkshire was the destination for the first two, a 2-0 win at Airdrie and a 1-1 draw at Cliftonhill. The third match was in the Cup and Andy Geggan scored to ensure progress at Somerset Park. Brechin City were December`s first visitors and a 3-1 win kept Athletic top of the table. They maintained this by returning to Ayr, this time in the League, and winning 2-1. Next, Stenhousemuir provided stubborn opposition, but a Shaun Rooney goal separated the sides. The year ended with a 4-2 win, at Forfar, on Boxing Day.
Early January has become a time for sombre reflection for Pars fans as they recall the tragic
death of Norrie McCathie. This year it would be the twentieth anniversary and it was marked by a series of events under the title "Spirit" There was a display of memorabilia at East End Park, a celebratory evening at the Carnegie Hall, where around thirty of Norrie`s team mates got together in front of an audience to recall some of his adventures and the match against Cowdenbeath had a special programme and the teams lined up in commemorative strips. The Pars wore replicas of the blue and red quartered strip in which Norrie had played his final game, away to St. Mirren.
Two Michael Moffat goals were enough to beat Cowden 2-1. The following week was a home Scottish Cup tie against Ross County. The Pars were held to a 2-2 draw and narrowly lost the replay 1-0. With the home match against Albion Rovers postponed, the next action was a dour 0-0 draw in Peterhead. The last game of the month was switched to a Friday evening to accommodate television and a quite dreadful game, bereft of atmosphere resulted in Airdrie winning 1-0 at East End Park. Brad McKay had arrived on loan from St. Johnstone.
Things improved as February began with a 3-0 away win against Stenhousemuir. Faissal el
Bakhtaoui scoring his 19th goal of the season to go with two from Andy Geggan. This kept The Pars eight points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand.
There was sad news when Davie Thomson (scorer of the first goal in the 1961 Cup Final replay) passed away. Ayr United were next to visit and a 3-2 win kept the points in Dunfermline. Brechin City were despatched 2-1 at Glebe Park and the last game of the month brought a visit from Stranraer, who were handed out a 6-1 thrashing, featuring a Joe Cardle hat trick, two more from el Bakhtaoui and a Brad McKay counter.
The fixtures for March began at home to Stenhousemuir and a 5-0 win got things off to a
flier. Albion Rovers put on a stuffy display in the postponed home match and went back to
Coatbridge with a point from a 1-1 draw. Somerset Park brought a return to winning ways and a 2-0 win on the road. Rhys McCabe scored the goal that mattered away to Cowdenbeath and the month finished with a home match against Brechin City.
The Pars were so far in front at the top of the table, ten points over Peterhead with a game in hand, there was an outside chance that they could be Champions by the end of the day. For this to happen Dunfermline needed to win and Peterhead to lose. Pars fans are used to sweating it out but the team did their bit by beating Brechin City 3-1 at East End Park with a hat trick from Faissal el Bakhtaoui and there was a great cheer when news came through that our good friends the Blue Brazil had defeated Peterhead. There were great scenes as we all celebrated our return to the Championship with five games to spare.
The April run in began with a narrow 1-0 win away to Albion Rovers. Faiss scored his 30th
goal in this game, only his 40th appearance - a phenomenal achievement. Forfar Athletic were the penultimate visitors to East End Park and drew 2-2.
The team had been celebrating too much and two dreadful away performances ended in defeat 1-4 at Stranraer and 0-3 at Airdrie. A crowd of over 6,000 was there to celebrate the final match, at home to Peterhead and thanks to Joe Cardle they were rewarded with a 1-0 victory.
A great season with Sean Murdoch and Ben Richards-Everton ever present, closely followed by Faissal el Bakhtaoui, Jason Talbot, Michael Paton, Andy Geggan, Michael Moffat and Joe Cardle and along with Josh Falkingham these guys showed the benefit of a regular
team selection.
The top scorer was Faiss with 30. Joe Cardle weighed in with 16 and Michael Moffat with 15. Sean Murdoch achieved 17 shut-outs.
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