Dunfermline Athletic v St Johnstone match preview

William Hill Championship leading St Johnstone head to Fife to take on Neil Lennon's improving Dunfermline on Saturday at KDM Group East End Park

The visitors from Perth arrive having lost just 1 game all season and will begin the game with a 12-point advantage over their hosts in the table. Neil Lennon's Dunfermline are chasing a top-3 spot, and come into the match on the back of 3 wins in their last 4 games.

Dunfermline are showing signs of improving on their seventh-placed finish last season, in the first full season of Neil Lennon's tenure. Midfielder Andrew Tod is the shining light of Dunfermline, scoring 10 goals so far this season, including 7 in the league, but he and his teammates will be up against the best defence in the league this Saturday. St Johnstone have conceded just 8 goals, keeping 7 clean sheets and tasting defeat just once, away to Arbroath on 18 October.

A win on Saturday could be a launchpad for Dunfermline to compete for a playoff place at the end of the season, and possibly return to the top flight of Scottish Football for the first time since 2007. However, the Fife team come into the game with several long and short-term injuries including Billy Terrell, Chris Kane, Zak Rudden, Kyle Benedictus and Josh Cooper.

Dunfermline Athletic have an illustrious history in Scottish Football, having reached the 1969 Cup Winners' Cup Semi-Finals, and won the Scottish Cup twice in 1961 and 1968, part of their golden years of the Swinging 60's.

Sir Alex Ferguson is known as one of their greatest ever players, scoring 91 goals for the club in 136 appearances, and was part of the team which finished third in 1965, ahead of both Rangers and Celtic. Ferguson joined Dunfermline from St Johnstone.

The Pars, as Dunfermline are known, have hosted St Johnstone 69 times, winning 35, losing 22 and drawing 12 since they first met in the 1912/13 season.

GRNDSTND will have a match report on Saturday evening, along with selected images from the game. The game kicks off at 3pm and is Live on Pars TV to viewers outside the United Kingdom.

The match is part of the project - OUR GAME: Community and Identity through Football by Matt Hooper Photography. The project explores the relationship between fans and players, and the club within the community. The project will be published as a book and in an exhibition once completed, and has so far included matches at Dundee United, Dundee, Raith Rovers, East Fife, Arbroath, Swindon Town, St Andrews United and Cupar Hearts.

GRNDSTND, by Matt Hooper