East Fife 2-1 St. Johnstone B, Tuesday 13th August 2024
MGM Timber Bayview Stadium, SPFL Trust Trophy R2
East Fife successfully navigated the second round of the SPFL Trust Trophy, beating St Johnstone B 2-1 at the MGM Timber Bayview Stadium on Tuesday night. A much-changed line-up saw East Fife struggle to warm into the game before the Fifers kicked into gear.
It would be the Saints who struck first however, after some poor communication between defender and goalkeeper in the first ten minutes saw a ball flicked into the path of Makenzie Kirk. The young forward made no mistake about his acrobatic strike and launched it past Fleming.
After the goal, East Fife progressively grew into the game and despite being the better team for the remainder of the half, we struggled to find an opening, and the half time score read 1-0 to the visitors.
Fleming made up for his first half woes at the start of the second period as he bagged an assist from Nathan Austin’s equaliser. His drop kick sailed right over the entire St Johnstone squad, landing in the path of “Fash”, who outjumped Klimionek to dink the Saints goalkeeper Kyle Thomson.
The Black and Gold completed the turnaround just 90 seconds later when Scott Shepherd capped off a top-quality piece of build-up. Laaref and Shepherd played a one-two, before the ball was lashed to Austin who flicked it round the corner for Shepherd to run onto. East Fife’s number 9 then made no mistake with his finish.
Credit to St Johnstone who fought to the end, giving the Fifers some scares, after we failed to kill the game off. Ultimately, Taylor Steven’s squandered opportunity in the 91st minute proved costly, and it was the Methil Milan who advanced into the third round.
Reporter’s Man of the Match: Scott Shepherd.
Hard to argue against East Fife’s number nine last night, he never stopped running from the first to the last whistle. A great individual performance capped off by a phenomenal team goal.
East Fife – Fleming, Docherty (Easton 56’), Murdoch, Munro, Peggie (Newton 63’), Healy, McManus (Millar 64’), Slattery (Norey 64’), Laaref, Shepherd, Austin (Trouten 72’). Subs not used: McFarlane.
St. Johnstone B – Hepburn (Thomson 45’), Klimionek, Essel, Parker, Franczak, McCrystal, Clark (Dair 64’), Bright, Steven, Kirk, Cocks. Subs not used: Brookfield, Binnie, Ellison, Shiels.
Referee – Ryan Lee
Attendance - 295
