Stillie's experience saves the day

DEREK MCCALLUM

DUNFERMLINE goalkeeper Derek Stillie today described the moment that broke Hearts in the Fifers’ 2-1 win at East End Park.

With the game finely balanced at one goal apiece after Alan Maybury swept a low shot home shortly before half-time to cancel out Derek Young’s opener for the Pars, Craig Levein’s men emerged for the second half like greyhounds out of a trap.

Hearts’ Graham Weir, who has punished the Pars in the past, outsmarted the Fifers’ rearguard to race through one-on-one with Stillie seconds after the restart.

With a goal looking firmly on the cards for the Capital club the Dunfermline goalkeeper revealed he treated the situation as a battle of brinksmanship and insisted it was his patience that prevented the sequence of events going Weir’s way. He said: "As a goalkeeper you try to stay up and make yourself as hard to beat as possible.

"I managed to bide my time when he came through and tried to slot it past me. I was lucky enough to make the save, although I was still anxious after I’d touched it but I felt maybe I’d got enough on it, and it was nice to see it going past the post."

Stillie admits the victory was vital for the Fifers who are aiming to overhaul Hearts in the battle for third spot.

He added: "Hearts have shown their quality over the start of the season both in the league and with their terrific performances in Europe, so to take three points was always going to be tough.

"It closes the gap on them. We were very aware if they had beaten us they’d have been well clear. It was important to win and close the gap and we’re delighted that’s what we’ve done."

Stillie admits Hearts made it tough for the Fifers but he believes it was the Pars quality that came home to roost in the end and he paid tribute to his team-mates.

"They have got great delivery from dead balls. They also have height in their team and that caused us problems but in general our defenders coped really well with them.

"It was a great move when we opened the scoring and Derek Young finished it with a fantastic strike to put us 1-0 up.

"All credit to them for scoring from a well worked free-kick. Then they came at us straight away at the start of the second half but we weathered the storm.

"Darren Young put over a fantastic ball for Scott Wilson who got a great header on target and scored the winner."

The woodwork came to Stillie’s rescue midway through the second half when Scott Severin rattled his crossbar.

Then the keeper produced another wonder save as Hearts piled on the pressure to deny Robbie Nelson.

Stillie admitted the final few minutes felt like hours as Dunfermline desperately defended their lead.

"It was quite a siege at the end. They put up Andy Webster and were bombarding us but the guys dealt with it really well. It was tense but we hung on to win."

Taken from the Scotsman