East Fife 1-2 The Spartans, Saturday 4th May 2024

MGM Timber Bayview, cinch League Two

The Spartans snatched a 2-1 victory at the MGM Timber Bayview Stadium against East Fife yesterday, as they gear up for a playoff semi-final against Peterhead.

The first half was largely uneventful for roughly the first 43 minutes, before it quickly went from zero to one hundred.

We had the ball in the back of the net after 43 minutes, though the referee adjudged that Jack Healy had used his hand to get the ball over the line, and thus it was disallowed.

Just seconds later it looked destined to be 1-0, as Scott Shepherd had an open goal to tap home into. He let his shot fly, but not before Sam Newman could recover and produce a world class piece of defending, sending the sides in all square at half time.

The tempo was maintained into the second half, though not all in East Fife’s favour. It was the visitors who took the lead at the start of the second period through James Craigen’s tidy finish.

East Fife answered back relatively quickly though, as Scotty Shepherd got his goal at the second time of asking. Nathan Austin lashed a cross along the goal line, and our Number 9 answered, with Scotty Shepherd slotting home at the back post.

It would be difficult to argue that East Fife were not the better team, though performances do not win games, and in the 90th minute the Spartans secured their win, and 3rd place in the league through Robbie Thomson. Archie Wylie capitalised on some poor East Fife defending, and laid up Thomson with ease, who slotted home into an empty net.

East Fife - Fleming, Murdoch, Page (Walls 75'), Blaney, Newton, Millar, McManus, Trouten, Shepherd (Lyon 84'), Austin, Healy (Hamilton 78'). Subs not used: Nicol, Docherty, Murray, Beverage, Ramsay

The Spartans - McCready, Dishington (Cunningham 82'), Waugh (Watson 45'), Sonkur (Geaney 45’), Newman, Craigen (Wylie 64’), Jones, Denholm, Thompson, McNulty (Ndlovu 64’), Brown. Subs not used: Carswell, Armstrong, Whyte

Referee – Ryan Lee

Attendance - 577

Report by Oli Anderson