Well folks, it's off to the Kingdom of Fife this weekend and all bluenoses should be travelling in an upbeat mood for a number of reasons. Firstly there was a comprehensive victory over Ah-baah-deen last weekend, which in reality was 2-0 going on six or seven. Secondly, we have never lost a Premier League game at East End Park, winning 14 and drawing 4 of our 18 previous visits. In fact we have never lost any SPL game against Dunfermline, and have lost only 8 league games against them in our history so that must be cause for optimism.
Finally, "Basel proved the Beggars Fawlty", "Celtic got Swiss rolled", so I'm sure there will be several punters working out innovative chants for the weekend as the extraction of the urine takes place live on the BBC.
As to the game itself, the statistics regarding our previous games frighten me as I know undefeated records must come to an end some time but I'm pretty confident it won't be this weekend. Dunfermline lost 2-0 at Hearts last week and I take us to extend their misery although I'd prefer not to give them a two goal start as we did on one of our visits last year, before coming back to win 4-2. The other game was a drab end of season 1-1 draw featuring Rangers reserves, and was notable mostly for the swansong of Ferige.
We're pretty shipshape regarding injuries with Amoruso, McCann, and Nerlinger the notable absentees although I'm sure Bob Malocm will fill in for Amoruso quite competently again. I take us for a 3 or 4-1 victory because, although I think we're much the better team, I'm still not convinced of our ability to keep clean sheets.
Enjoy.
BELFAST D