Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football team based in Dunfermline, Fife. They are currently members of the Scottish Premier League, and finished runners up to Celtic in this season’s Scottish League Cup final, played on March 19, 2006. They play at East End Park and are nicknamed The Pars. They are currently managed in a caretaker capacity by Craig Robertson, who was the assistant to former manager Jim Leishman. Leishman resigned on October 25, 2006, but will remain at the club as the director of football.
Dunfermline Athletic won the Scottish Cup in 1961 and 1968, and played regular European football in the UEFA and European Cup Winners Cups throughout the 60s and early 70s. They reached the Semi Final of the European Cup Winners Cup in season 68-69, losing 1-2 on aggregate to eventual winners Slovan Bratislava. On the way to the semi-final they beat APOEL, Olympiacos and West Bromwich Albion.
Contents
1 Origins of nickname
2 Managers
3 Club records
4 Famous players
5 Current squad (season 2006-2007)
o 5.1 Player out on loan
6
Honours
7 External links
Origins of nickname
According to Black and White Magic, a 1984 book about the club by Jim Paterson and Douglas Scott, there are numerous theories as to the origin of the club’s nickname, the Pars. The authors wrote:
Most tend to confirm the more common belief that the name arose from the team’s parallel striped shirts, their drinking habits or their style of play. The latter were both described as “paralytic”. The earliest theory claims that in the early days when the Football Club was closely connected with the Cricket Club, the footballers were renowned for their performances at the bar and so were called the “Paralytics”.
However in the early 1900s it is known that Athletic’s nickname was the “Dumps” – shortened from Dunfermline – and this is said to have been coined by English sailors visiting East End Park when their ship docked at Rosyth. After the 1914-18 War they were known as the Pars and some believe the parallel black and white stripes to be the reason.
Another school of thought involves English workers who came to work at the armaments depot at Crombie and at Rosyth Dockyard; they kept their association with their local team by forming the Plymouth Argyle (Rosyth) Supporters Club and it is said that the Dunfermline nickname comes from the banners in evidence around the ground.
Managers
William Knight (1922-1925)
Sandy Paterson (1925-1930)
William Knight (1930-1936)
David Taylor (1936-1938)
Peter Wilson (1938-1939)
Sandy Archibald (1939-1946)
William McAndrew (1947-1947)
Bobby Calder (1947-1948)
Webber Lees (1947-1951)
Bobby Ancell (1951-1955)
Andy Dickson (1955-1960)
Jock Stein (1960-1964)
Willie Cunningham (1964-1967)
George Farm (1967-1970)
Alex Wright (1970-1972)
George Miller (1972-1975)
Harry Melrose (1975-1980)
Pat Stanton (1980-1982)
Tom Forsyth (1982-1983)
Jim Leishman (1983-1990)
Iain Munro (1990-1991)
Jocky Scott (1991-1993)
Bert Paton (1993-1999)
Dick Campbell (1999)
Jimmy Calderwood (1999-2004)
David Hay (2004-2005)
Jim Leishman (2005-2006)
Club records
Highest home attendance: 27,816 vs Celtic, 1968
Biggest league win: 11-2 vs. Stenhousemuir, 1930
Biggest league defeat: 10-0 vs. Dundee, 22 March 1947]]
Biggest all-time defeat: 17-2 vs. Clackmannan, Midland League, 1891
Most capped player: Colin Miller 16 (Canada), 1995-1998
Most appearances: Norrie McCathie, 576 (497 league), 1981-1996
Most career goals : Charles Dickson, 212 (154 league), 1955-1964
Record transfer free paid: £540,000 to Girondins de Bordeaux for Istvan Kozma, 9 August 1989
Record transfer free received: £650,000 from Celtic for Jackie McNamara, 4 October 1995
Famous players
Willie Callaghan
Eddie Connachan
Charlie Dickson
Alex Edwards
Alex Ferguson
George Mclean (1971-1972)
Hamish French
Ross Jack
István Kozma
Jim Leishman
John Lunn
Norrie McCathie
Harry Melrose
Bert Paton
Craig Robertson
John Watson
Ian Westwater
Current squad (season 2006-2007)
No. Position Player
1 Scotland GK Roddy McKenzie
2 Scotland DF Greg Shields
3 Scotland DF Scott Wilson
4 Scotland MF Darren Young
5 Scotland MF Jamie McCunnie
6 Scotland DF Scott Thomson (captain)
7 Scotland MF Stephen Simmons
8 Scotland MF Gary Mason
9 Scotland FW Mark Burchill
10 Scotland FW Jim McIntyre
11 Scotland MF Scott Muirhead
12 Scotland DF Scott Morrison
14 Scotland DF Phil McGuire
15 Northern Ireland FW Owen Morrison
16 England FW Noel Whelan
17 France MF Frédéric Daquin
18 Scotland DF Andy Tod
No. Position Player
19 England DF Aaron Labonte
20 Scotland FW Jim Hamilton
21 England DF Calum Woods
22 Scotland FW Craig Wilson
23 Scotland DF Greg Ross
24 Côte d’Ivoire DF Souleymane Bamba
25 Scotland FW Stephen Crawford
26 Scotland DF Clark Kaye
27 Scotland MF Nick Phinn
29 Netherlands GK Dorus de Vries
31 Scotland FW Calum Smith
32 Scotland MF Ian Williamson
33 Scotland MF David Muir
34 Scotland FW Alan McDonough
35 Scotland DF Neil Fenwick
36 Scotland DF Derek Howie
Player out on loan
30 Scotland GK Sean Murdoch (on loan to Forfar Athletic)
Honours
First Division (2) – 1989, 1996
Second Division (2) – 1926, 1986
Scottish Cup (2) – 1961, 1968; Runners-up (2) – 1965, 2004
Scottish League Cup – Runners-up 1950, 1992, 2006
Cup Winner’s Cup semi-finalists 1969
Cup Winners cup quarter-finalists 1962
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