Dunfermline Athletic

News and Events | Unitentional Sabotage

Chris Wishart visits a troublesome period in the history of Dunfermline Athletic - The Leishman / Munro saga

October 1983 and the Pars had just lost at home to Arbroath, bringing an end to Tom Forsyth`s term as manager. He and his predecessor Pat Stanton had overseen the decline of the club. Crowds were down below the 1,000 mark. The board moved to put Jim Leishman in temporary charge and on the last day of the month, confirmed his full appointment. By the end of the season, Jim had brought in Gregor Abel as coach and had changed the atmosphere at the club. It was good to have a Pars man in charge.

May 1987 and in less than four years Jim Leishman and Gregor Abel had taken The Pars from the depths of the bottom division to promotion to the Premier League. The combination of Jim`s remarkable motivational skills and man management with Gregor`s coaching had performed wonders. Not only that, Jim had reached out and engaged with the community at large and was bringing large attendances through the gates at East End Park.

As the new season approached, Gregor Abel (pictured above left) had decided that he could not combine his work as a senior PE teacher with the duties of a full time Premier League club and had resigned. The board engaged Iain Munro who had been an excellent footballer and was highly thought of as a coach. Although The Pars failed to stay up, they won many friends for their style of play and there were high hopes of an immediate bounce back.

May 1989. Mission accomplished, back in the Premier League and by November, The Pars reached top spot. The Leishman/Munro team seemed to be flourishing. Behind the scenes, however, Iain Munro was becoming ambitious (as he was entitled to be). The board, in an attempt to keep him happy, made him joint manager with Jim Leishman. A foolish move - you cannot have two bosses. I suspect that team selection may have been causing differences of opinion. the Pars survived, finishing 8th. Pars fans looked forward to the new season.

July 1990. If some enemy was planning to sabotage the Pars, what would be an effective way of doing it? Stop the forward momentum, remove the inspiration, alienate the fans and community and put a man in charge who had neither experience nor ability in man management. The fact that this was carried out by people who thought that they were acting in the club`s favour is what makes it so tragic.

Their foolish plan was to remove Jim Leishman from his managerial role at the age of 36, move him upstairs and give the role to the untried Iain Munro, two years his senior. It was done sneakily and was sprung on Jim, the fans and the players. Jim refused to have anything to do with the nonsense and resigned, thus losing the club its link to the fans and community which he had built up over seven years. The fans protested and were ignored and certain board members tried to get the players to endorse their action. Sabotage achieved, albeit unintentional. Not content with this, the board compounded their stupidity by berating the fans for not endorsing their actions.

May 1991. The club had finished in 8th position, the same as the previous season, so at least the position in the top flight was retained. There was, however, none of the feel good factor of previous seasons, a poorer standard of football with top-scorer Ross Jack with only ten goals (less than half of his tally in the previous season). Although there had been one or two sizeable crowds, gates were well down on last season, some even dropping below the 4,000 mark.

In the final programme for the season, there was an article which criticised those fans who were still complaining or staying away and stating that the board were right and that Munro was the man to take the club forward - what pompous arrogance! Hardly likely to win people back.

September 1991. They were wrong!! Iain Munro was sacked. Jocky Scott was brought in, with Gordon Wallace as his assistant. Jocky had been a superb player for Dundee and Aberdeen and was well respected as a coach.

May 1992. The club finished bottom and were relegated. Perhaps the saboteurs were now happy with their work.

May 1993. Athletic failed to win promotion, with an end of season collapse and manager Scott falling out with the fans. There was an overall sense of gloom which had prevailed since that idiotic decision to oust Jim Leishman and to ignore the fans. Gates had plummeted and it was not only down to the team`s performances but also to a lack of belonging felt by the support. Three days later, Jocky Scott was sacked.

June 1993. It was announced that Bert Paton was to be the new manager, with Dick Campbell his assistant. Bert had been many fans favourite player. He was a Fifer and a Pars Man through and through, as was Dick. The clouds lifted and for the first time in six years, Pars fans were looking forward to the new season. The long road back to the top had begun.



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