Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 10:23am

Gibson strikes late to thwart lowly Airdrie

Willie Gibson converts the 87th minute penalty that rescued a point for the Pars

Airdrie UTD 1 DUNFERMLINE 1

PARS pulled off a late rescue operation to salvage a point against bottom-of-the-table Airdrie United.

Willie Gibson's disputed penalty with only four minutes remaining stopped the Diamonds from securing just their third league win of the season but the match was grim viewing for the visiting fans.

For the second time in four days, Airdrie boss Kenny Black was unhappy with the Pars being awarded a spot-kick.

He changed his mind after watching a video of Saturday's incident at East End Park but this time he was sure the foul had occurred outside the box.

His comments will be of little interest to the Pars who would have liked to have levelled earlier to leave more time to grab a much-needed winner.

The Pars had been pressing for the equaliser throughout the second half and seemed to be running out of timeand ideas when the breakthrough finally came.

Lively substitute Ross Campbell played a good ball through the middle splitting the defence and as Steven Bell was about to pull the trigger he was pulled down.

The referee showed no hesitation and neither did Gibson as he sent the keeper the wrong way. The winger then had a shot deflected and Gary Mason fired wide as Airdrie appeared to be wilting but they quickly broke away and passed up a golden two-on-win opportunity to snatch back the lead.

The match watched by a sparse crowd of 703, had started slowly and the only activity of note early on was the verbals directed by one or two loud mouthed locals at former Airdrie player Joe Cardle.

Andy Kirk muscled his way through and fired straight at the keeper in 12 minutes from a difficult angle.

A wild shot from David Graham into the empty stand behind the goals summed up a scrappy opening period but Airdrie went into a shock lead in 24 minutes.

There seemed little danger when Richard Waddell picked up the ball in the inside left channel 25 yards out but he fired a fierce drive which Fleming got a hand to, diving to his left, but couldn't keep out.

Things went from bad to worse five minutes later when Andy Kirk went down in a challenge and had to be stretchered off with an ankle injury.

Pars were able to build up more momentum in the second winning corners and free-kicks around the box but were kept out by a mixture of resilient and desperate defending.

Pars manager Jim McIntyre said he was unhappy with the first half display and let his players know it at the interval.

He added, "We deserved at least a point. We were pleased with the reaction from the players in the second half."