NEITHER side did enough to win; neither side did so little they deserved to lose. Both could claim they had their spells; both would be forced to concede they drifted aimlessly through other passages. What we were treated to at East End Park yesterday was one of those cup ties that failed to live up to its billing by being infuriatingly difficult to pin down. As Aberdeen came within nine minutes of progressing to the semi-final of the Homecoming Scottish Cup following a stonking Sone Aluko strike on the half-hour mark, their First Division opponents could only have been the happier that a replay will now be required at Pittodrie a week on Tuesday.
The curious nature of the confrontation was reflected in the fact that Aberdeen's opener seemed to spook Jimmy Calderwood's men more than Dunfermline. By changing their shape and switching personnel, Jim McIntyre fired his Fife side and the inroads they then started to make spread edginess among the visitors' backline.
None of which, however, explains why no Aberdeen player followed up Jamie Mole's edge of the area shot that led to the equaliser. Well hit, but hardly a stinger, Jamie Langfield should have done better than glove it to the side of him. But he was sold short when Dunfermline pair Andy Kirk and Nick Phinn were allowed to steam in at him unchallenged. The keeper blocked at the feet of Kirk only for the ball to break to Phinn, who knocked it in to an unguarded net.
"I'm a wee bit annoyed because we put ourselves in a position to go on a win," Calderwood offered with good reason. "We got the goal and should have finished them of but then had a scary last 10 minutes."
It wasn't that scary. McIntyre, meanwhile, wasn't for saying other than Phinn's finish was a fair return for the Fifers. "We merited the equaliser," he said. "Aberdeen started like a train in the first 20 minutes of the second half but we regrouped. That's now three SPL sides we've played this season and given a good account of ourselves each time."
St Mirren's defeat of Celtic earlier in the afternoon unquestionably supplied the East End Park confrontation with added bite. It was always going to be a molar-flashing affair anyway. In cup competitions, teams and their supporters decide it could be their year on the basis of omens, portents, lucky Y-fronts and countless other pieces of hocus– pocus.
A top-notch effort from the Aberdeen support resulted in them numbering almost 6,000 of the 9,696 crowd. Part of the appeal for the Pittodrie faithful is that cups are the only possible receptacles that will allow them to slake their thirst for silverware. Not since their 1990 triumph have they lifted the Scottish Cup. They have so many scores to settle with the competition, not least after they committed hari-kiri of the grimly comical kind to lose 4-3 to Queen of the South in the semi-final last year.
It's a result the Aberdeen support find difficult to forgive Calderwood for – and the man himself finds impossible to expunge from his psyche. There was all manner of chatter in the build-up to yesterday that Dunfermline's home crowd would remind him how treacherous he was in leaving them for his current post. It didn't really happen. With the early minutes seeing the home team force the pace Calderwood's return was quickly reduced to an irrelevance.
The first chance was up by the only man on the pitch with first-hand experience of a claiming a cup for Aberdeen. It is hard to reconcile Stephen Glass, veteran Dunfermline midfielder, with the teenager voted man of the match when Roy Aitken's Dons captured the League Cup courtesy of a 2-0 win in December 1995. But Glass remains an intelligent player capable of good delivery, and he demonstrated that when swinging a corner to the edge of the penalty box that sat up invitingly for Phinn. Too invitingly, with the player trying to melt the ball and as a result sending it whizzing past. Graham Bayne did the same with a header midway through the first period but thereafter Aberdeen started to get their ball players, Jamie Smith and Aluko, on the ball.
Smith showed what he could do with a dead ball just before the break when Paul Gallacher was forced to stretch fingertips to tickle a wickedly-curled free-kick over. A Tommy Wright header almost caught the keeper out within five minute of the restart but when Gallacher was beaten on 61 minutes, it was with a sumptuous angled-drive from just outside the box that Aluko caught perfectly and fairly rattled into the corner. The conclusion of a dainty move, there was very few of those on a day of duffing and scuffing.
MAN OF THE MATCHSone Aluko's strike was the only moment to savour from this contest.
QUICK FACTAberdeen are chasing a first Scottish Cup Final appearance since they lost 4-0 to Rangers in 2000.
TALKING POINT Normally, Aberdeen would now be favourites to win the replay. But not with their cup track record.
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Watch a slideshow of pictures from yesterday's Scottish Cup matchesThe full article contains 896 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
