Ladbrokes League 1
Saturday 12th August 2017
Bayview Stadium
East Fife 1 (Hurst 56’)
Alloa Athletic 0
East Fife XI: Goodfellow, Dunsmore, Docherty, Watson, Slattery, Duggan (Linton 89’), Hurst (Wilkie 70’), Millar, Gordon, Flanagan (Wilson 77’), Willis
Subs: Cordery, Reilly, Mutch
Alloa Athletic XI: Parry, Taggart, Crane, Graham, Meggatt, Robertson, Cawley, Flannigan, Malcolm, Fleming, Cook (Renton 65’)
Subs: McDowall, Hetherington, Thomas, McKeown, Martin, McDonald
Referee: Colin Steven
Attendance: 589
East Fife welcomed Alloa Athletic to Bayview for the first home match of the season and it was the hosts who picked up their first points of the season thanks to a second half strike by Greg Hurst. Manager Darren Young made one change to the side that lost to Stranraer last time out; Kyle Wilson making way for Hurst to make his full East Fife debut.
The first chance of the match fell the way of the home side when Nathan Flanagan cut inside from the right but his shot was blocked by the Alloa defence, the rebound fell to Pat Slattery who couldn’t find the target with his back to goal. The visitor’s best chances of the game fell within a couple of minutes of each other when first Ryan Goodfellow produced an excellent save to deny Craig Malcolm at point-blank range before Goodfellow produced another fine stop from Callum Crane’s cross-come-shot.
The home side were passing the ball about well and good link up play between Paul Willis and Chris Duggan gave the former a sight of goal on 18 minutes and Alloa ‘keeper Neil Parry was at full stretch to keep out his shot. At the other end Iain Flannigan tried his luck with a volley from 25-yards but it sailed way over before Jon Robertson strike from 30-yards flew just wide of the left-hand post on 26 minutes.
Duggan got a couple of opportunities before the half hour mark when first he was played in by Aaron Dunsmore but couldn’t keep his shot down before showing great technique to twice lift the ball over defender’s heads, trying to find space to get a shot away.
Flanagan curled a shot narrowly over from 25-yards on 37 minutes before Alloa had the final chance of the half when Scott Taggart got on the end of a cross but could only send his header well wide of the target.
East Fife started the better side after the break and almost found a break through 5 minutes after the re-start when Flanagan got to the by-line and sent in an inviting cross but good defending by Darryl Meggat prevented Hurst from heading into an open goal. Hurst wasn’t to be denied, however, scoring his first East Fife goal on 56 minutes when Parry missed a cross from the right by Willis leaving Hurst with a tap in the centre of the goal. Hurst should have added a second 10 minutes later when Parry failed to hold a free kick from Mark Docherty; Hurst reacted quickest but could only hit the bar much to the relief of the Alloa stopper.
The home side were content to sit in as the visitors pressed for an equaliser but the failed to break down a well-drilled East Fife defence. Substitute Kris Renton did manage to get a shot away 3 minutes from time but it was never going to trouble Goodfellow.
A fantastic and hard-fought win for East Fife with great performance all over the park.