Dunfermline 2 Peterhead 2

DUNFERMLINE tossed away two points with the Blues rescuing a point deep into added time.

Athletic were two goals up with six minutes left, through Rhys Breen and Nikolay Todorov, but the team at the bottom of the table shocked them with two late strikes.

Jason Brown netted after a fortunate ricochet, an attempted clearance fell perfectly for him to score, and in the fourth minute of added time Mike Hewitt nodded a leveller.

It was an incredible finish as Dunfermline looked to have done enough until that late sucker punch.

Pars remain the last unbeaten team in Scotland but boss James McPake was furious with the way they threw it all away.

There are six league games in October for the Athletic and they started the month on top of the pile, 11 points clear of bottom side Peterhead.

James McPake added to his squad yesterday, bringing in two wide boys on loan from Rangers and Motherwell, with Kane Ritchie-Hosler, 20, and Robbie Mahon, 19, named as subs.

The boss has been loud and clear about the need to bring in new faces, especially with Kevin O’Hara out injured for a couple months, and Mahon in particular had some nice touches when the pair appeared late in the second half.

Dunfermline hadn’t played for a fortnight, the last outing was the 1-1 draw with Falkirk, and they looked a little rusty in the early stages.

The alarm bells were ringing when Breen failed to deal with a hopeful punt and Robbie Scullion skipped through. He could have shot but tried to cut inside onto his right foot and Josh Edwards was in on the cover to make the tackle.

The Blue Toon, led by long serving manager Jim McInally, were thumped 4-0 at home by Elgin in the Challenge Cup last Saturday but they did beat Kelty 2-1 the week before and showed flashes of enterprise in attack.

Fresh from starring for the Scotland under-21s, Chris Mochrie was a livewire for Athletic and he slid an excellent pass behind the defence for Edwards to race onto.

The full back should have pulled the trigger but hesitated and almost got lucky when his attempted cross cannoned off Jason Brown and the ball bounced just wide of the Peterhead goal.

Dunfermline’s menace grew as the game wore on with Todorov knocking a cross just past the post while Lewis McCann let fly and tested the keeper from distance.

Just before the half hour mark Kyle MacDonald swung in a dream of a cross from the right wing but Breen was just stretching when he met it and his header arrowed just wide.

Peterhead fell out of the match as Dunfermline took control with Mochrie at the heart of all their good moves, with a desperate clearance from Ryan Strachan preventing Todorov from feasting on another Edwards delivery.

There were a few more near things as Pars continued to flash the ball across goal and McPake would have been disappointed to have nothing to show for it at half-time.

MacDonald made way for Craig Wighton at half-time and the direction of traffic towards the away goal remained the same, with Mochrie making room for a shot but firing well over the top.

A clever reverse pass from Matty Todd then found McCann in the box but he got under the ball and from 12 yards out his effort cleared the bar.

Mochrie then took Wighton’s pass in his stride and guided a low drive just wide of the upright.

A blast from the past almost rocked the Pars in the 61st minute when former East Ender Ryan Dow rattled the crossbar with a free kick, with goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet well beaten.

After that shock Dunfermline poured forward and Ryan Strachan was booked for a cynical foul on Mochrie, taking the youngster out while he was in full flight and racing beyond him to goal.

Retribution arrived seconds later as Dunfermline recycled possession, Edwards swung the ball to the back post and when Peterhead couldn‘t clear, Breen swivelled to poke a low shot into the net.

Mochrie almost made it two moments later but after cleverly creating the space for a shot at goal, his finish lacked conviction and Tom Ritchie held on.

With six minutes left Edwards sent in an inch perfect cross from the left and Todorov raced in at the back post to convert from close range.

Almost immediately, Jason Brown netted for Peterhead after an attempted clearance smacked off Breen and fell perfectly for him to tuck home from close range.

And in the fourth minute of added time, Hewitt latched onto Andy McDonald’s deep free kick to nod the ball back across goal and into the net.