Published: Thursday, 11th March, 2010 8:00am

Dunfermline staring relegation in the face after humiliation

GHA 83 Dunfermline 0

DUNFERMLINE are staring relegation in the face after a humiliating 83-point defeat without reply against promotion-chasing GHA on Saturday.

The team now have five more league matches in which to save their skin, with a home derby match against Kirkcaldy next on the agenda for the McKane Park side.

GHA did not give Dunfermline any time with the ball and were the more composed, prepared and committed of the two sides with the score-line reflecting the divide between the two teams.

The writing was on the wall after only eight minutes when Dunfermline found themselves 19-0 down through three tries and two successful conversions.

GHA's fast pace and adept passing put additional pressure on the Dunfermline players and they exposed weaknesses on the wings while attacking.

Dunfermline were rarely out of their own half in the first 20 minutes as GHA were relentless in their forward attacks.

After a collision in which the away side had a player down, GHA once again exposed the gaps in the Dunfermline defence and added their fourth try of the match to take the score to 26-0 and secure their bonus point as well.

When Dunfermline did manage to apply some pressure, GHA would instantly steal possession back and attack with high speed using their agile line backs.

Due to the defensive and offensive capability of GHA's line backs, Dunfermline were limited to forcing the ball through the middle, a tactic that helped GHA control the flow of the game and they added two further tries before half-time.

Going into the break, Dunfermline were embarrassingly 40-0 down and left with the sole aim of retaining some dignity from the remainder of the match.

Within minutes of the restart, GHA had added three more tries and two more conversions, taking the score to 59-0.

Graham Lowe was sin-binned for 10 minutes and, ironically, when Dunfermline had one less player on the field than their opponents they did not concede.

A further GHA try made it 66-0 and Dunfermline began digging in their heels through driving mauls but, in the last 10 minutes, GHA capped an excellent performance with three more tries and one conversion, taking the score to 83-0.