AFTER the bitter disappointment of their 4-1 home defeat at Lochgelly Albert’s hands a fortnight ago, the Seasiders faced the challenge of another Fife outfit on Saturday in Rosyth.

A poor start to the season for Rosyth had surprised many given their promotion push last time around. With a number of players injured or unavailable, Dunbar boss Geoff Jones made wholesale changes to his starting XI, with only five who started against Lochgelly selected.

It took a long time for the game to settle, the pattern for the opening half-hour seeing play switch from end to end with great regularity but little in the way of goalmouth incident.

A pivotal incident on 29 minutes changed the course of the game – a long Rosyth clearance spun off the boot of Dunbar defender Ross Colquhoun and fell into the path of home dangerman Hampson, who was brought down outside the box by Grant Thomson; the referee sent Thomson off to leave the Seasiders to play an hour with only 10 men.

Hampson can be a volatile character at times and was fortunate to escape with a booking a few minutes later for a blatant push on Darren Gillon. Connor Wood, recalled to the Dunbar goal, brought off a great save from Hutchison but he was beaten in the 38th minute. The irony of Hampson heading in at the back post from a free-kick was not lost on Dunbar, who felt with some justification Rosyth should also be playing with 10 men. The teams went in at the interval with Rosyth leading 1-0.

A great chance fell Dunbar’s way early in the second half when Jamie Burstow set up Steven Girdwood, whose shot went just past the post – in response Rosyth broke up the park and doubled their lead through Goodwin.

A third Rosyth goal was avoided only by a goal-line clearance, not long before Dunbar boss Jones made three changes. The substitutions seemed to galvanise Dunbar, and within a short space of time the home keeper had been forced into good saves by Ballantyne and by Darren Handling. The Seasiders battled hard and were on top for the final 15 minutes but fate didn’t favour them.

Dunbar could feel a little hard done by at the afternoon’s events, but it would have pleased manager Jones that his players fought to the end in challenging circumstances.

Jones will hope his team can return to winning ways this Saturday when Pumpherston Juniors visit New Countess Park.