the beginning of the match was dominated by st johnstone and after 13 minutes they were awarded a penalty kick by referee eddie smith when dunfermline midfielder stephen simmons collided with st johnstone's steven anderson in the penalty area. paul sheerin took the penalty kick and scored beyond dunfermline's goalkeeper, paul gallacher, by hitting the ball into the bottom-left corner of the goal to score his seventh penalty of the season. just several minutes after the first goal st johnstone had an opportunity to score again when kenny deuchar had an attempt on goal after a pass from rocco quinn; the header beat goalkeeper gallacher but went just wide of the goalpost. in the 19th minute, however, st johnstone did score their second goal when peter macdonald struck a left-footed volley from 12 yards out which dunfermline's goalkeeper gallacher failed to stop.