Dunfermline 32 Murrayfield Wanderers 31, National League Division Four

DUNFERMLINE head coach Gavin Emerson said his players "should be really proud of themselves" after a thrilling comeback with 14 men against Murrayfield Wanderers on Saturday.

The McKane Park outfit's first XV played their first home match of the National Division Four season, looking to bounce back from their opening day defeat at North Berwick, and collected a full haul of five points in dramatic circumstances.

They led 20-7 at the interval and looked on course for victory but four second half tries - taking their total to five - saw the visitors move into an 11-point lead.

Dunfermline then saw a score reversed, and one of their number shown a red card, for what the referee deemed to be foul play, a decision that Emerson said they were considering appealing after what he described as "a complete accident".

Galvanised by losing a man, and with the crowd behind them, the home side rallied and, after scoring an unconverted try, a second score, this time with a successful kick, gave them a superb success complete with a try-scoring bonus point.

"We made big improvements from last week," Emerson told Press Sport.

"We started off really well. I don't know if it was just because we were at home and we had the support with us, or the boys have actually been trying to implement what we've been working on for weeks in training, but it seemed to click.

"I think we caught Wandies off guard a wee bit. We went in at half time in front. We just really tried to play with a lot of tempo. With the heat, it wasn't an easy thing to do, but the boys stuck to the task.

"We've been asking them to show how they care to go the extra mile to really grit their teeth and just get through it.

"We went in at half time well in the lead, then we came out second half and, as I said last week, Wandies came to life.

"They did bring on a Premiership winger who is probably one of the fastest players in the league. They got two really good scores on the outside; they made the space, gave it to the player who had lots of room, and he just gassed round us twice. Wandies just capitalised on that. They got their aggression up and our boys just started sinking away.

"The boys did find something. They showed they cared, they kept playing and they got their rewards. We started breaking them down a bit; Wandies, any time they got a stoppage, or a kick, they really took their time to try and get their breath back."

Emerson said that the red card was given when, after his team had gone over for a score, one of his players jumped on a team-mate's back to celebrate, but fell forward and clashed heads with an opponent who had attempted to make a try-saving tackle.

"There was head on head contact but there was no malice. However, from what he (the referee) saw, he made the decision," Emerson continued.

"It wasn't meant, but he put his hands up, took the card and went off not arguing. He went and apologised to the boy at the end and apologised to the ref for having to make that decision.

"We're going to figure out what we're going to do, if we're going to try and appeal it, because we've got the video as well. We'll see how we go.

"He was pretty gutted; it's his first time he's had a card, believe it or not.

"We went down for the last 10, 15 minutes, maybe longer, so the boys had to really dig deep again, and we did.

"We thought that was it, we'd lost it, we'd lost our chance. We had that score, the ref took the score off obviously because there was an act of foul play, but the crowd got behind the boys. I think they gave them that extra energy that they needed and we got the score we needed.

"It was in the corner, so it put pressure on our kicker, but he actually slotted it, and we got the victory from it.

"Five points at home. It wasn't pretty, but I would take that any day of the week over a team that was National Three last season. They're a good outfit.

"We got what we wanted. Five points was amazing to get, especially at that sort of level, so the boys should be really proud of themselves."