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Scottish League Premier Division
Saturday 8th August 1987

Dunfermline fans had waited for the 8th August 1987 for a very long time. In 1975, when the Scottish League had been re-organised into three divisions instead of two, Dunfermline narrowly missed out on a Premier Division place after a very poor finish to the season which saw them move out of a top ten spot. Although there was great disappointment, everyone thought that it would simply be a matter of time before the Pars would get there - they had, after all, been one of Scotland`s top clubs for most of the previous twenty years. Sadly, that matter of time became twelve years as the Pars fought unsuccessfully to get out of the football wilderness. But then, just as the fans were getting used to the idea, rapid promotion in successive seasons brought the club Premier League football at last.

The notion of Duntermline in the Premier League was a novel idea, and drummed up by the media hype of Pars manager Jim Leishman, the home fans turned out in large numbers on a lovely sunny August day to see their favourites. This was new territory too for a lot of Hibs fans, and a crowd of around 12,000 created a tremendous atmosphere inside the freshly spruced up stadium. The players arrived to a standing ovation, and Jim Leishman had sprung one surprise - he had included 17 year old central defender Andy Williamson in his starting line up.

The opening exchanges were frantic as would be expected, but Dunfermline were dealt a bad blow after only three minutes. Youngster Williamson stretched going in to a tackle, and had to be carried off in his first senior match.

Fortunately, this had no ill effect on the rest of the team, and Dunfermline withstood some Hibs pressure before taking a sensational lead in 20 minutes. Centre-half David Young, who had been with the club from the Second Division days, rose to head home the Pars opener and East End Park went wild. Dunfermline might have got a second before half-time but it was Hibs who carved out an equaliser through Paul Kane right at the break.

That goal seemed to give Hibs confidence, and with Dunfermline now struggling to cope with the menace of Mickey Weir, Hibs went ahead with a goal from the winger himself. Dunfermline were far from finished, however, and within a few minutes were level again.

This time it was former Hibee Stuart Beedie who scored for the Pars. It was the third goal inside ten minutes, but there was more to follow. Hibs teenage midfielder John Collins put them into the lead again in the 59th minute, and it looked for all the world as if they were going to keep it as they maintained a tight control in midfield.

If it had ended there, Dunfermline fans would still have been satisfied with their day`s work, but they had real cause for celebration in the 87th minute when that man Young popped up again for the equaliser.

The game had produced six goals and incidents galore. The Dunfermline fans left East End Park that day with a very happy smile on their faces. You could hear them thinking, "so this is what we`ve been missing!"