DAFC 1 DUFC 3

United came away with a vital win at East End Park in the most dramatic circumstances after Cammy Bell saved not one, not two but THREE first half penalties as ten-man United somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

I'm not going to dwell on the saves themselves after doing an article on it yesterday, but it was a fantastic achievement by Bell and he quite rightly took the matchball home after his incredible hat-trick. I'm also due Mr Beaton an apology - I was raging at the game but having seen all three incidents back I thought they were all penalties. Dixon's sending off however I don't agree with, his first yellow card being for dissent (fair enough) but his second for me he won the ball.

It was a funny old game. I actually thought United were poor throughout. We didn't pass the ball as well as we normally do, the midfield was unable to impose itself and we had too many passengers. The defence was ropey, with Willie giving away the first penalty after losing his man at a corner, and that happened a couple of times after that too. Frank gave away the second penalty after a strange stumble and then handled for the third. I thought Dixon was poor (Paul, we don't have John Daly in the box, stop trying to throw in crosses at every opportunity) while I'm becoming increasingly concerned about Toshney's performances. Our lack of pace at the back is also concerning and Dunfermline very much played to that throughout.

What we did have was clinical finishing. Andreu wasn't really in the game but had two clinical finishes to secure the points for us. Murray too struggled but capitalised on poor defending to fire us in front. I thought we missed Cammy Smith to be honest and I thought he looked good when he came on, putting through a lovely pass for the third goal late in the game.

It was a big three points for us though and will hopefully kick start our season. We have a big game next weekend at Falkirk in the live Alba clash and we could do with another three points.

One other thing jumped out at me on Saturday - the utter pointlessness of the 10,000 seater stadium Dunfermline had to build to get in the SPL as it was then. We had 2,001 Arabs in a crowd of 5,500 and if that had taken place in a 6k or 7k stadium it would have been a terrific atmosphere. Sadly the stadium was half empty and it impacted the atmosphere at the game - there was pretty much no interaction between the sets of fans because they were too far apart.

Also, the steak bridies at East End Park are terrific.

Mon the Terrors.