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East Fife played their final game of the Premier Sports Cup group stage against Ross County in Dingwall. Despite already knocked out, the travelling supporters were hoping that Stevie Crawford would bring a win back home to Fife. 

Ross County were the highest ranked team within the group stage as they narrowly missed out on European football last season and needed a win to guarantee progression through to the next round. The manager made 2 changes to the win midweek with Ryan Schiavone starting and Murdoch reclaiming the captain’s armband after his absence earlier in the week.

The Staggies kicked off the game with a dominant style of play and high intentions of winning. Early on County had most of the possession although the East Fife back line stood strong against the Premiership opposition. 

East Fife’s best chance of the game came in the 22nd minute when Scott Shepherd received the ball on the left side bye-line. Shepherd passed across goal to Schiavone however the County defender narrowly got to the ball first and cleared it out of play. 

Ross County took the lead on the 26th minute when the ball was laid off to Victor Loturi and he rifled home a powerful effort into the top corner past Smith to give the Staggies the lead.  Murdoch picked up the first yellow card of the game after his rash tackle on Owura. The Dingwall side doubled their advantage with around 5 minutes left of the half. Yan Dhanda, on the right side of the box, played a square pass to centre for Ben Purrington, who scored despite Smith getting a touch on the ball. 5 minutes later, the referee blew the half time whistle.

The Second half started poorly for the Fife. After less than a minute in East Fife had conceded a third when Dhanda skipped past the East Fife midfield and played to ball out to William Akio on the right-hand side who squared it to Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila to tap in making the game 3-0. Two minutes later Ross county scored a fourth when Akio, again on the right side, cut the ball back, to Owura Edwards who slots home into an open net. A short while after, Ross County and Owura added another when he picking up a loose ball at around 25 yards and drilled a screamer into the far top corner further extending Ross County’s lead. 

On the 55th minute Ross County added a 6th following to a goalmouth scramble with numerous County players seeing shots blocked before Kazeem Olaigbe pounced on the ball closely in front of goal and scored.

Olaigbe scored his second, and Ross County’s 7th when he than glided into the box getting into a decent shooting position before smashing the ball into the roof of the net. 

With 15 minutes of the game to go, Crawford made his first substitution with Schiavone making way for Pat Slattery. 5 minutes later Mikey Cunningham came on for Shepherd. The rest of the game was mostly Ross County holding the ball in their half, seeing out the game and route to the round of 16 before the referee blew for full time. The team will need to quickly put this results behind them as the first game of league football is next Saturday as we take another trip up north to play Elgin City in what will be a far more even affair. 

We round off our 2022/23 Premier Sports Cup campaign with a trip north to face Ross County at the Global Energy Stadium.

Squad News

Stewart Murdoch returns to the squad this afternoon, but Alan Trouten will be left out to give him the best chance of being available for the start of the league campaign next week. Scott Gallacher and Connor McManus continue to miss out with long-term injuries.

Team Colours

East Fife will be in our away colours of green/white strips, white shorts and white stockings with the goalkeeper in all-blue.

Ross County will be in their traditional home colours of navy/red strips, navy shorts and navy stockings with the goalkeeper in in all-yellow.

Previous Encounter

The last meeting between the sides also took place in the Highlands back in February 2019 with Ross County progressed to the final of the challenge cup with a 2-1 victory.Dan Armstrong and Declan McManus had the home side 2-0 up after 37 minutes before Anton Dowds pulled one back a few minutes later.

Ross County: Munro, Fraser, Grivosti, Boyle, van der Weg, Mullin, Paton (McKay 83’), Draper, Armstrong (Lindsay 73’), Stewart, McManus (Gardyne 79’)

East Fife: Long, Dunsmore (Bell 80’), Dunlop, Meggatt, Linton, Watson, Watt (Smith 66’), Davidson, Docherty (Currie 74’), Slattery, Dowds

Match Tickets

Today’s match is pay-at-the-gate

Ticket prices are as follows:

Adults - £15

Concessions* - £10

Under 18s** - Free

*Over 65s and 18-21 year olds. Proof of age may be requested

**Proof of age may be requested

Live Streaming

No live stream is available today for viewers inside the UK & Ireland.

East Fife TV Overseas Gold subscribers can watch the match as part of their regular subscription.

Admission prices for our match against Ross County this weekend at The Global Energy Stadium have been confirmed as follows:

Adults - £15

Concessions* - £10

Under 18s – Free

*Over 65s & 18-21 year olds

East Fife were still seeking their first win of their League Cup campaign as they played host to Buckie Thistle on Tuesday night. The insanely hot conditions added an element of challenge to playing the Highland League outfit who are coming off the back of numerous successful seasons. The Fifers were also looking at breaking the “B” curse after losing our three previous encounters against non-SPFL sides who’s name began with the letter B.

Following the score draw against Alloa Athletic last week, Stevie Crawford made 3 changes to the starting eleven, with Pat Slattery, Jude Smith and Jack Healy all starting. The absence of Stewart Murdoch made way for Scott Mercer to take the captain’s armband.

Buckie showed their intent early on as they created a few good chances which amounted to nothing. The first real chance fell to the hands of the green and white hooped visitors in the 22nd minute. A series of tragic events at the back for East Fife led to Buckie Thistle gaining possession in the box, Scott Adams then took a touch to compose himself before chipping the ball over a stranded Smith into the corner of the net, putting Buckie 1-0 up to the disbelief of the fife faithful.

Buckie Thistle didn’t sit back after the goal as Macaskill saw his shot saved from close range by Smith. Jack Healy was the first to enter the referees book for a cynical tackle on Munro. 

Buckie doubled their lead on 36 minutes, when Macaskill, on the edge of the box, passed to a completely unmarked Adams just inside the penalty area, who excellently places the ball into the top corner past a diving Smith. 

With half time approaching, East Fife were desperate to pull one back, as Shepherd found himself on the left flank and played a pass into the feet of Kieran Millar, however his shot was well saved by Buckie ‘keeper Balint Demus. The referees whistle went for half time after a very disappointing first half of football for the Fife.

At half time Buckie thistle made a triple substitution in attempt to see the game through and seal the win. East Fife made a single substitution where Healy made way for Ryan Schiavone. 

Less than a minute into the half East Fife already had a sight of goal thanks to a long throw from Aaron Steele which was met by Kieran Millar who managed to escape from his marker, but he could only head the ball into the hands of Demus.  

After a large amount of pressure was pilled on to Buckie from East Fife early on, the Methil men managed to get one goal back after Shepherd beats Demus to a through ball, before rounding the keeper to score into a completely empty goal making the game 2-1. East Fife, clearly now in the ascendancy, managed to draw the match level two minutes later with Steele’s long throw once again posing a major threat, this time finding the head of Mercer who elegantly steered the ball into the bottom corner. 

East Fife were a lot more dominant in the second half and were presented with another golden chance when Mercer’s cross was well met by Schiavone at the near post, the attempt, however, was put behind for a corner. In the 77th minute Buckie collected two yellow cards in quick succession after a few unnecessary challenges from the Jags. A short while later, the Steele-Mercer combo proved to be prolific once again when another long throw into the mixer was met again by Mercer and placed into the same corner as before putting East Fife into a well-deserved 3-2 lead. 

With 8 minutes to go the coaches made the final change of the night for the Fife with Mikey Cunningham coming on to replace Shepherd. Buckie were the last to see a sight of goal in the 94th minute, attempting to give a sucker punch to the Fife team, Murray’s effort was blazed well over the bar from inside the box to relief of the East Fife supporters. Directly after Chris Fordyce blew up for full time ending the 4 month winless drought in competitive matches in a very exciting fashion. A good comeback from the team provided a great deal of entertainment for the Fife faithful, who clearly enjoyed the evening.

Andrew Laing