Ladbrokes League 1, Excelsior Stadium, Saturday 14th January 2017
Airdrieonians 2 (Ryan 26’, Leitch 89’)
East Fife 2 (Kerr 45’, Brown 74’)
Man of the Match: Jason Kerr
East Fife XI: Hurst, Slattery, Kane (Austin 90’), Page, Kerr, Lamont, Brown, Robinson, Insall (Duggan 84’), Penrice, Paterson
Subs Not Used: Mutch, Trialist
Booked: Austin
Airdrieonians XI: Ferguson, McIntosh, Boateng (McKay 78’), Gorman, MacDonald, Conroy, Stewart, Hutton, Ryan, Leitch, Brown (Russell 75’)
Subs Not Used: Cairns, Higgins, Louden, Thomson, Kerr
Booked: Conroy
Referee: Alan Newlands
Attendance: 833
East Fife’s winning run came to an end but they still managed to pick up a hard-fought point following a 2-2 draw with Airdrieonians. East Fife made two changed to the side that beat Stenhosuemuir with Mark Lamont and new signing Nicki Paterson replacing the departed duo of Kevin O’Hara and Scott Mercer.
13 minutes in East Fife had their first chance of the match when Rohan Ferguson was unable to cleanly collect Lamont’s corner however Kerr was unable to connect cleanly and the ball trickled wide. Almost immediately the home side had their first opportunity in front of goal after good work by Scott Stewart down the right but Andy Ryan was off-balance and fired wide. Airdrieonians took the lead on 26 minutes when Stewart broke forward following an East Fife corner and two passes later Ryan had the ball in the back of the net. East Fife grabbed an equaliser on the stroke of half-time when Kerr rose highest to head home Lamont’s corner for his 5th goal of the season.
The home side enjoyed the majority of the possession and attempts in front of goal for the first 20 minutes of the second half. After a series of corners a strong drive from Adam Brown was turned round the post by Mark Hurst before Ryan curled the ball narrowly wide following another breakaway move. East Fife began to grow into the game in the final quarter a took the lead on 74 minutes when Ross Brown to get on the end of a cross from Kevin Smith and steer his header past Rohan Ferguson into the bottom corner
Airdrieonians were pressing for an equaliser and Kerr was on hand to block a goal-bound effort from Jack Leitch on 82 minutes. The home side scored a deserved equaliser with a minute left of normal time with Leitch got on the end of a cut-back by substitute Jack McKay. The visitors almost left with all three points in injury time but Ferguson was able to turn Nicki Paterson’s free kick behind for a corner.
A run of 6 straight wins came to an end but a point means East Fife are now only 4 points behind 2nd placed Alloa Athletic with a game in hand.
After the match Manager Barry Smith spoke to East Fife TV:
“The position we were in we’re disappointed. When you’re 2-1 up going into the last few minutes of the game but in terms of the game a draw was probably a fair result. It shows what that dressing room is like they are disappointed but they shouldn’t be because we’re on a good run at the moment and we remain unbeaten, I think its 6 or 7 games. They shouldn’t be downbeat they should be looking positively towards next week’s game.”