Ladbrokes League 1
Saturday 9th December 2017
Bayview Stadium
East Fife 1 (Duggan 23’)
Stranraer 1 (Wallace 70’)
East Fife XI: M Hurst, Dunsmore, Piggott, Page, Linton, Millar, Docherty, Lamont (Mutch 88’), Wilkie (H Hurst 81’), Smith (Willis 65’), Duggan
Subs: Goodfellow, Flanagan, Watson, Wilson
Booked: Docherty, Dunsmore, Millar
Stranraer XI: Belford, Hamill, Barron, Neill, Dick, Beith (Robertson 90’), Bell, Anderson (Okoh 86’), turner (Woods 66’), Thomson, Wallace
Subs: McLaren, Stoney, McGowan, Lang
Booked: Dick
Dismissed: Dick
Referee: Steven Kirkland
Attendance: 521
East Fife welcomed Stranraer to Bayview in Ladbrokes League 1 encounter where both sides played out a highly competitive 1-1 draw. Manager Darren Young made one change to the side that lost to Queen’s Park last time out with Chris Kane making way for Scott Linton, who made his return from injury. The visitors sat 1 point and 1 place behind East Fife prior to kick off and both teams proved evenly matched over the 90 minutes.
Stranraer started the brightest and had their first sight of goal inside the opening minutes when former Fifer Ryan Wallace found himself in space but dragged his shot wide of target. Stranraer threatened again after 15 minutes but Kyle Turner could only fire straight at Mark Hurst from 20-yards. The home side were growing into the game and were so close to opening the scoring on 17 minutes when excellent play by Kyle Wilkie inside the area and laid the ball off for Chris Duggan who was denied by a fine save from Stranraer ‘keeper Cameron Belford low to his left. Duggan went close again a few minutes later, this time his shot deflected behind for a corner.
A quick break from Stranraer saw Liam Dick find himself in space on the edge of the area and should have made more of the opportunity but fired in a shot that was straight at Hurst on 22 minutes before East Fife opened the scoring moments later. A lovely pass inside from Aaron Dunsmore picked out Duggan who found the bottom right-hand corner for his 9th goal of the season. Duggan had the chance to double the lead on 29 minutes when he got on the end of a corner from Scott Linton but sent his header wide at the near post. Duggan found space down the right to fire in a cross along the 6-yard box which was cleared as far as Mark Docherty on the edge of the area but he just missed the target shortly before the break.
The second period started with a moment of controversy when Duggan latched on to a poor back-pass from Steven Bell and was left with only Belford to beat only to be flagged off-side. East Fife had started the second half the way they had finished the first and Mark Lamont almost added to the lead just before the hour mark when his cross from the right hit the post before ricocheting off Stranraer defender Jamie Hamill and tricking past the post. Belford produced a fine double save from the resulting corner when first he kept out Kevin Smith’s header and the back post before denying Jonathan Page with the follow-up.
Smith had a glorious opportunity to put the game to bed on 63 minutes when he was picked out by Duggan but sent his shot wide from 12-yards with only Belford to beat. East Fife were left to rue their missed chance as the visitors were now in the ascendency. Hamill was denied by a good save from Hurst before Wallace levelled the game on 70 minutes when he found the back on the net from 25-yards; a deflection taking the ball away from Hurst. Angus Beith looked to have given Stranraer the lead on 76 minutes but was denied by a goal line clearance from Dunsmore before Hurst pulled off a sensational save to keep out a strike from Paul Woods that looked destined for the top corner 7 minutes from time. Stranraer finished the game with 10-men when Liam Dick was dismissed after picking up his second yellow of the afternoon for a foul on Ross Mutch.
Overall, a draw was probably a fair result with both sides having their goalkeepers to thank for keeping them in the game. Next up for East Fife is a home tie against league-leader Ayr United.