Motherwell 3-0 East Fife, Viaplay Cup Group G MD5
Saturday 29th July 2023, Fir Park
It was not to be for the Fifers in the Viaplay cup this year, as they succumbed to a 3-0 loss to Premiership opposition Motherwell at Fir Park at the weekend. The Fifers, who finished the game with 10 men after Johnny Page was sent packing late in the first half, struggled to get going in the contest.
The game started in a similar vein to that of East Fife’s other league cup games against higher tier opposition, holding off and looking for a goal that never looked like arriving.
We did have the first clear cut chance early doors when Shepherd sprayed a great square ball into the box, which Blaney beat Healy to by a matter of millimetres. That was the best chance the Fifers had in the opening half an hour, with Fleming having to make a number of great saves from close range, keeping Soare out on two occasions.
The best Fife chance came just after the 30 minute mark, when Gregor Nicol’s free kick was met with a stramash in the box, which no Fifer could get on the end of, and after a stramash in the box, the Steelmen had managed to clear it and the counter was on, the ball was cleared to Slattery on the halfway line, who then fed through Lennon Miller. Miller sent Fleming the wrong way, and 10 seconds after it looked destined that Fife would take the lead, the Premiership side were in front.
It went from bad, to awful in a matter of minutes for the Black and Gold as 3 minutes later, Conor Wilkinson had a low driven dig from 25 yards out, which beat an outstretched Fleming, essentially killing the contest in the first half.
Somehow, it went from awful to horrendous for the Fifers, when Page was sent off just before the interval, when he was caught in an entanglement just outside the East Fife box. Limbs were flailing, and the referee adjudged that there was a stamp involved, leaving the Fifers one man and two goals down before we could even get to half time.
Half Time: Motherwell 2-0 East Fife.
The second half was a much more dominant display from Motherwell, who knocked on the door for the entire 45 minutes, strangling the game with relative ease. Fife noticeably struggled, though they only shipped one other goal.
That came in the 66th minute through Callum Slattery. The midfielder jinked inside and around three Fife defenders before firing into the far bottom corner.
The ball was in the net five minutes later, after a passage of play started by a slack back pass, though the linesman’s flag was raised for offside.
That marked the last action for Fife in the league cup campaign, who narrowly miss out, despite not losing any of their other 3 games. All attention has been turned to Saturday when the Fifers start their second season back in the 4th tier of Scottish football, at the MGM Timber Bayview Stadium against newly relegated side, Peterhead.
Report by Oli Anderson
Motherwell – Oxborough, Casey, Blaney, Paton (Zdravkovski 50’), McGinn (O’Donnell 45’), Miller, Souare (Wilson 68’), Spittal, Slattery (Ferrie 68’), Wilkinson (Maguire 77’). Subs not used: Kelly, Lamie, McGinley, Ross
East Fife – Fleming, Newton, Page, Docherty, Easton (Murdoch 73’), McManus, Trouten, Healy (Philp 88’), Nicol (Comerford 45’), Shepherd (Millar 74’), Walls (Schiavone 68’). Subs not used: Cunningham, Hambrook, Beveridge
Attendance: 3,076
Referee: Kevin Clancy