Ladbrokes League 1, Hampden Stadium, Saturday 4th February 2017
Queen’s Park 2 (Zanatta 28’, Brady 36’)
East Fife 2 (Duggan 49’, Robinson 73’)
Man of the Match: Luke Watt
Queen’s Park XI: Muir, Millen, Wharton, McKernon, Mitchell (Orsi 76’), Cummins, Woods, Brown, Zanatta (Gault 76’), Brady (Docherty 56’), McIlduff
Subs Not Used: Fotheringham, McVey, Burns, MacPherson
Booked: Brown, Brady, Orsi
East Fife XI: Goodfellow, Slattery, Page, Kerr, Brown, Duggan (Insall 79’), Smith (Austin 90’), Robinson, Penrice, Paterson, Watt
Subs Not Used: Hurst, Lamont, Trialist
Booked: Robinson, Page, Penrice, Smith, Paterson
Referee: Gavin Ross
Attendance: 566
East Fife travelled to the National Stadium looking to keep their impressive run of 10 games without a loss and succeeded thanks to a fantastic second half display. East Fife made two changes to the side which drew with Stranraer the previous week with Jamie Insall and Chris Kane making way for Chris Duggan and new loan-signing Luke Watt.
East Fife had an early sight of goal when Duggan, making his first start for East Fife, got the better of Ross Millen down the left and his cut back fell to Kevin Smith at the back post but former Fifer Wullie Muir was out quickly to block. On 20 minutes Scott Robinson had a chance to open the scoring however his shot from 10-yards was deflected behind for a corner. East Fife had been controlling the game but it was the home side who took the lead against the run of play on 28 minutes. Good play between Jamie McKernon and Paul Woods saw the latter play in Dario Zanatta who fired past Ryan Goodfellow into the bottom corner.
Queen’s Park doubled their advantage on 36 minutes when Zanatta picked up a loose ball in midfield and raced towards goal before laying off to Anton Brady to his left and Brady found the back of the net. Watt tried his luck from 25-yards on the stroke of half-time but his shot sailed narrowly over. East Fife had been the better side in the opening 45 minutes but the home side were clinical in front of goal.
Barry Smith changed formation for the second half with Robinson moving to the left and Smith playing through the middle and the visitor were unlucky not to pull one back on 47 minutes when Smith chipped the ball through to Duggan but his right-footed shot was saved by Muir. Duggan wasn’t to be denied however as he opened his East Fife account 2 minutes later. A quick free kick taken by Watt saw Smith collect a poor clearance and lay the ball off for Duggan who found the back of the net from 20-yards with an excellent strike that gave Muir no chance. At the other end Goodfellow produced a good save to deny Zanatta on 59 minutes however the majority of the play was taking place in the Queen’s Park half.
East Fife thought they had equalised on 68 minutes when Pat Slattery had the ball in the back of the net but the flag was rightly raised for offside. A goal was coming, however, and duly arrived on 73 minutes. Watt’s cross from the right was cushioned down by Duggan into the path of Robinson who found himself unmarked 6-yards out to slot past Muir for his 5th goal of the season. The visitors were the team in the ascendency and Queen’s Park had Muir to thank for keeping them in the game. First he pulled off an acrobatic save to tip Smith’s shot over the bar before he was able to smother a close range shot by Watt.
East Fife had been by far the better side but the home side almost stole all three points in the dying minutes when first David Gault’s toe poke flew narrowly over then Kalvin Oris should have at least hit the target from 12-yards but his weak strike trickled wide. East Fife’s unbeaten run stretches to 11 games with a 5th round Scottish Cup tie against St. Mirren up next.
After the match Barry Smith spoke to East Fife TV:
“The first-half, from our point-of-view, we’ve defended extremely well but it was too soft goals we conceded. We didn’t play particularly bad but the second half we changed things a bit and it worked for us. They [the players] put in a good performance and did what we asked them to do and for as much as Queen’s Park may have snuck it at the end there I thought we were the dominate team throughout the second half.”