East Fife made the journey south to take on Midlothian club Bonnyrigg Rose. The two sides previously met in early August at Bayview when the visitors won the match 3-0. The team were hoping to make amends against a Bonnyrigg team who had lost 4 out of their last 5 matches. The Fifers previously played Forfar Athletic at Station Park and won convincingly 3-1.
No changes were made to the starting eleven that beat Forfar the weekend before, with interim Manager Greig McDonald showing faith in the team to, once again, bring home the three points.
The home side took the lead after only 2 minutes when Currie whipped in a corner for the leaping Callum Connolly who’s bullet header rippled the back of the net, giving the Rose a very early lead.
After going 1-0 up, Bonnyrigg showed no signs of slowing down as only a minute later, Connolly found himself in space on the right side, to play an enticing cross into the box which was met by the head of Scott Gray a couple of yards out, however his header is high and over the bar.
As things began to calm down from the Bonnyrigg side, the Fifers began to ramp up the pressure. In the 30th minute, Scott Mercer had his free kick well saved by Mark Weir in the Bonnyrigg goal. After two minutes of injury time, the referee concluded the first half after a fairly uneventful final 15 minutes with a few wayward efforts not amounting to much.
HALF TIME: Bonnyrigg Rose 1-0 East Fife
As Bonnyrigg kicked off the second half, the intent was clear from East Fife with a couple of early chances falling their way. The first being from a long throw from Steele that no one manged to get on the end of. The second, fell the way of second Shepherd when he was played in by Millar, but his deflected effort was comfortably held by Weir.
On the hour mark, the Methil men levelled the game up. Following a corner to the visitors, Steele picked up the ball on the edge of the area and fed the ball back out to Ferguson on the right-hand side, who’s cross found the head of Ryan Schiavone who heads home from close range.
A second goal followed in quick succession when a quick throw in found Alex Ferguson who skipped away from his man and on the edge of the box strikes the ball into the far bottom corner of the net giving East Fife a much-deserved lead.
Two shortly became three with a 3rd goal in 5 minutes. This time a corner from Ferguson was found Schiavone who connects with the ball to head it home for his fourth goal in two games.
Bonnyrigg Rose’s best chance of the half came in the 78th minute when Hunter played in Gray, but Fleming did well to close the angle to block Gray’s effort.
Another chance fell the way of East Fife when Ferguson took the ball around the Rose defender and cut the ball back across the face of goal for Shepherd who got to the ball ahead of Weir however his flick wasn’t enough to seriously challenge the goalkeeper.
East Fife wrap up the game in the 90th minute after a poor goal kick from Weir was picked up in the middle of the park with the ball fed out to Shepherd who, in turn, laid the ball off for Ferguson the slot the ball in at the near post, sealing the game for the Fifers.
The win puts East Fife up to third in the table, five points adrift of Dumbarton and Stirling Albion at the top. Next up, the Methil men take a trip to Ochilview Park to face Stenhousemuir in the second round of the Scottish Cup.
FULL-TIME: Bonnyrigg Rose 1-4 East Fife
Bonnyrigg Rose Team: Weir, Young (Wilson 47’), Horne, Doan, Grigor (Gray 74’), Stewart, Currie (Barrett 74’), Connolly, Gray, Hunter, Mitchell (McGachie 66’)
East Fife Team: Fleming, Murdoch (Healy 80’), Steele, Denham, Millar, Balde, Newton, Ferguson, Mercer, Schiavone (Steven 77’), Shepherd (Trouten 90+2’)
Referee: Graham Beaton
Attendance: 933
Andrew Laing