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Fifers Impress With Win Over Arbroath

Ladbrokes League 1

Saturday 28^th October 2017

Bayview Stadium

East Fife 3 (Duggan 56’, 67’, Lamont 67’)

Arbroath 1 (Linn 16’)

East Fife XI: M Hurst, Dunsmore, Docherty, Page, Piggott, Lamont (Smith 80’), Slattery, Wilkie, Willis, Duggan (Mutch 89’), G Hurst (Reilly 82’)

Subs: Goodfellow, Wilson

Booked: Page, Duggan

Dismissed: Wilkie

Arbroath XI: Hutton, Gold, Hamilton, Little, O’Brien, Whatley, Linn, Yule, Swankie (Hester 80’), McCord (Kader 81’), Denholm

Subs: Prunty, Henry, Douglas

Booked: Little

Referee:  Gavin Ross

Attendance: 565

East Fife continued their impressive home form with a comfortable victory over Arbroath in round 11 of Ladbrokes League 1. Manager Darren Young made two changes to the side that went down to Alloa Athletic last time out with Mark Lamont and Jonathan Page, returning from suspension, replacing the injured duo of Kieran Millar and Nathan Flanagan.

The game kicked off in conditions more usual found at Arbroath’s home ground of Gayfield Park with a strong wind blowing from the Dubbieside end of Bayview and the home side had to deal with both an Arbroath side who had scored 27 goals already this season and playing against the conditions in the first half.

The visitors had the better of the opening exchanges with first Gavin Swankie finding the side netting with a shot from the left before former Fifer Bobby Linn took advantage of some slack defending to fire in a shot that forced ‘keeper Mark Hurst into a good save at his near post. Linn then gave Arbroath a deserved lead with some nice play on the edge of the area before skipping past a couple of East Fife defender and slotting past Hurst on 16 minutes.

The home side’s first chance of the match came on 24 minutes when Greg Hurst won a foot race against David Gold and cut the ball back to Kyle Wilkie on the edge of the area but his shot was straight at David Hutton in the Arbroath goal. East Fife were beginning to find their feet and only a timely intervention from Lichtie’s captain Mark Whatley prevented Chris Duggan from having an attempt on goal from 8-yards after good work by Aaron Dunsmore down the right.

Arbroath then had a glorious opportunity to double their lead just after the half-hour mark when a quick break saw them with a man advantage inside the East Fife half but Thomas O’Brien chose to take on the shot himself, which was blocked, when he had teammates better placed. Danny Denholm then squandered a good opportunity from a free kick 25-yards from goal but sent the set-piece way over the bar.

A difficult first half for the home side playing against the wind but there were plenty of encouraging signs for Darren Young heading into the second period.

The warning signs were on the door early in the second half for Arbroath when Mark Lamont’s corner from the far-side rebounded off the crossbar with Hutton beaten. The home side were getting closer; first a great ball into the box by Docherty just failed to find a teammate before a good break down the right from Hurst saw his shot flash across the face of goal on 58 minutes.

An equaliser was coming and it duly arrived on 59 minutes when Duggan beat the offside trap to latch onto a long ball from Page, raced in on goal and slotted past Hutton at his near post for his 5^th goal of the season. Arbroath players and fans were adamant that the ball had taken a deflection on its way into the net but replays showing no such deflection.

Wilkie should have given East Fife the lead on 63 minutes but he failed to capitalise on some pretty poor defending from the visitors, overrunning the ball and allowing the Arbroath defence to clear. A second goal did arrive, however, 3 minutes later when Dunsmore left Colin Hamilton in his wake and sent it an inch perfect cross into the box that Duggan steered into the net at the back post for his 4^th goal in 3 matches at Bayview. The home side then added a third almost immediately from the kick off. Hurst changed down a clearance from Whatley which fell kindly for Duggan who, unselfishly, tried to return the ball to Hurst, Ricky Little got in the way but could only clear as far as Paul Willis 20-yards from goal. East Fife attackers were lining up to shoot and it was Mark Lamont who calmly curled the ball into the bottom corner for his first East Fife goal since August 2016.

A damper was put on East Fife’s afternoon when Kyle Wilkie was sent off by referee Gavin Ross for a challenge on Arbroath’s Colin Hamilton. It looked a harsh decision at first glance and replays show that Wilkie’s challenge was neither high or two-footed.

The man-advantage gave the visitors a lift and they could have pulled a goal back through Swankie on 78 minutes but for a great challenge from Piggott inside the 6-yard box. Arbroath were unable to threaten the East Fife goal and it was the home side who had the last chance of the game through substitute Kevin Smith but his shot from the left-hand side was straight at Hutton.

A fantastic result for the home side, a great team effort and a much-needed confidence boost going into the derby next week.

The Bayview | Black and Gold and Blue - Allan Brown

Signed from Kennoway Hearts during the summer of 1944 at the tender age of seventeen, local lad Allan Brown played his first match for East Fife in an Eastern (Wartime) League fixture against Dundee United at Tannadice on 12^th August. Described in the press as “a big chap who can shoot with either foot”, Allan quickly established himself in the East Fife team at the position of inside-left, and scored his first goal for the club in a 1-1 draw with Dundee at Dens Park on 25^th November. However, with Allan having reached the age of eighteen in October 1944, and with the Second World War still to reach a conclusion, it was inevitable that the young player would be called up to serve his country, although Allan did manage to maintain a regular place in the side until March 1945.

Despite the unconditional surrender of all German forces to the Allies on 7^th May 1945 and the surrender of the Japanese some four months later, the end of the war did not necessarily mean the end of active service for conscripts, and Allan found himself scheduled to serve in India, where the British Army maintained a presence until 1948. Despite his imminent departure, however, Allan did manage to squeeze in one final appearance whilst on embarkation leave against St Johnstone in a ‘B’ Division (Southern League) fixture on 1^st September 1945, and helped the Fife to a 2-1 victory.

Allan’s appearances over the next three seasons were restricted to home leave, during which he clocked up only a handful of games, and it was to be season 1948/49 before he managed to re-establish himself in the East Fife team after having finally been demobbed.

Once fully back in the fold, Allan made twenty-nine first team appearances for the Methil men during season 1948/49, scoring five goals, and helped the Fife reach the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the quarter-final of the League Cup. It was to be the following season before the Kennoway lad really made his presence felt, however, when he never missed a single first team game and found the net eighteen times into the bargain as East Fife lifted the League Cup for a second time and reached the final of the Scottish Cup.

It came as no surprise, therefore, when Allan Brown was selected for the Scottish League side to face the English League on Wednesday 22^nd March 1950 at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough, where the Scots suffered a 3-1 defeat in front of a crowd of 39,352. Despite a poor team performance, Allan was reported to have teamed up well with Hearts’ Scotland internationalist Willie Bauld, which must have pleased the international selectors, as just over a month later Allan was selected to up front play alongside Bauld for the friendly against Switzerland in Glasgow on Wednesday 26^th April 1950. With Methil team-mate George Aitken also in the side, Allan became the fifth East Fife player to be capped at full international level for Scotland whilst still plying his trade at Bayview, and did himself proud by scoring Scotland’s third goal in a 3-1 victory in front of an incredible Hampden crowd of 123,751.

Allan was then selected to travel with the Scotland party on a two-match continental tour to Portugal and France and, on Sunday 21^st May, he was East Fife’s sole representative in the Scotland side to face the Portuguese in the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, where the Fifer netted the second goal in a 2-2 draw in front of 68,000 spectators.

The player was by now attracting the attention of top clubs from all over the world, in particular from South America, and Allan made no secret of his willingness to play in the southern hemisphere; his only provisos being that the climate was to the liking of his Indian-born wife and that any signing-on fee was lodged in his Scottish bank account before he departed for the club in question! With the eyes of the world upon him, the East Fife man saved his best for the second tour match, in front of 35,568 at Stade Olympique du Colombes in Paris on Saturday 27^th May, when he scored the only goal of the game mid-way through the second half to record a 1-0 victory for the Scots; a feat that was not to be repeated against France on their own soil for another 57 years, when James McFadden pulled off a similar party-piece to record a famous single-goal victory in September 2007!

After returning home, it was clear to all that Allan Brown reckoned his future lay away from Bayview, which was hardly surprising with such a wealth of clubs keen to land the signature of the Scotland star. Understandably, East Fife were equally keen to retain the player, and a bitter dispute between the two parties ensued, with Brown refusing to agree new terms with the club. The result was that one of the most sought-after names in the game didn’t kick a ball for nearly six months and, with no wages coming in, was forced to seek temporary employment carrying out odd jobs here and there to make ends meet! Just as the dispute was threatening to reach the Court of Session, Allan Brown was eventually sold to Blackpool in December 1950 for a fee of £26,500; a record for a Scottish Club to have received at the time!

At Blackpool, Allan teamed up with the legendary Stanley Matthews to form one of the most formidable attacking forces in English football, but unfortunately missed out on Blackpool’s 1951 F.A. Cup final appearance due to a knee injury. Two years later, the player was dealt an even crueller blow when he missed out on playing in the famous “Matthews Final” at Wembley in May 1953, when Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3, after breaking his leg scoring the winning goal in the semi-final against Arsenal.

During his days at Bloomfield Road Allan Brown picked up another eleven Scotland caps, including appearances against Austria and Uruguay in the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland. After leaving Blackpool, Allan turned out for Luton Town and Portsmouth before ending his playing days as player/manager at Wigan Athletic. Allan then moved on to manage Luton Town, Torquay United, Bury, Nottingham Forest and Southport before two spells in charge of Blackpool either side of a spell in Kuwait managing Quadsia. Allan Brown retired from football in May 1982, and passed away at the age of eighty-four on 20^th April 2011.

Jim Corstorphine

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