PARS 0
Dundee United 1

FOR the second time in a week the Pars were reduced to 10-men in a losing effort to Dundee United.

The Pars went into the Irn-Bru quarter-final tie hoping to exact revenge on a United side which overcame the Dunfermline outfit on Tuesday night on league duty, with a 1-0 win at Tannadice.

Allan Johnston made two changes to his side, with Rhys McCabe and Michael Moffat both being introduced in place of Nat Wedderburn and Farid El Algaui. His counterpart, Ray McKinnon, made a total of eight changes.

United wasted no time in finding the back of the net when a short corner wasn’t dealt with by the Athletic backline. The ball bobbled in the box before Mark Durnan was able to place a shot, via a deflection, past the diving Sean Murdoch on 8 minutes.

Pars were finding it tough to play through the Terrors defence, but Nicky Clark should have done better from an Andy Geggan delivery from the right. Clark’s unmarked half-volley was sent high over the bar on 24 minutes.

United’s five-man midfield were able to pass the ball around at will, with the Pars’ central pairing of John Herron and McCabe unable to press the opposition towards their own goal.

However, they did just that minutes before half-time. A poor touch from Cammy Smith was quickly seized upon by Herron. The ball was soon moved wide to Moffat after a dummy from Cardle, and the striker’s powerful effort scraped the upper reaches of Zwick’s right-hand post on 45 minutes.

Nick Van Der Velden slipped a perfectly weighted through ball to Blair Spittal who was denied by the outstretched leg of Murdoch on 55 minutes on the left-side of the box.

Spittal was causing all sorts of problems, and his persistence to win the ball back soon saw the Pars go down to ten men on 57 minutes.

He was clean through once again after yet another individual mistake in the Pars defence this season. Lewis Martin lost possession and pulled Spittal back with only the keeper standing in his way of adding a second. Lee Ashcroft was recovering but Collum deemed it a red card offence.

Joe Cardle was soon sacrificed for Callum Fordyce as Johnston shuffled his pack to deal with the man disadvantage.

Murdoch then had to kept his side in it when Durnan threatened to add to his tally. His drilled attempt on goal was well saved by the Pars stopper, who then gathered Van Der Velden’s tame placed shot moments later.

Paul McMullan’s directness on the ball after his introduction started to ask a few questions of the away defence and drew a succession of fouls, and a booking for Van Der Velden.

Ali Coote really should have fired home United’s second when he lead a 3v1 assault on the Pars goal on 90 minutes. His tame shot was easily saved by Murdoch, with two United attackers calling for the youngster to square it.

The home support were then furious as El Alagui appeared to be brought down in the box by an orange shirt in added time. The protests fell on deaf ears.

The Pars weren’t able to muster any clear signs of goal after the incident as they exited the competition to a United side who had bested them for the fourth time this season.
 

PARS: Murdoch, Geggan, Martin, Ashcroft, Talbot, Higginbotham, Herron, McCabe, Cardle (Fordyce), Clark (McMullan), Moffat (El Alagui)

Subs not used: Hutton, Paton, Duthie, Smith,
Booked: Ashcroft, Talbot
Sent off: Martin

Dundee United: Zwick, Dillon, Durnan, Donaldson, Toshney (Murdoch), Spittal, Bradley Smith, Robson, Cammy Smith (Taylor), Murray (Coote), Van Der Velden.

Subs not used: Matthew Smith, Long, Allardice, Appere.
Booked: Donaldson, Bradley Smith, Van Der Velden

Referee: Willie Collum
Attendance: 2576