Ladbrokes league 1, Tony Macaroni Stadium, Saturday 5th November 2016

Livingston 3 (Buchanan 45’, 66’, Miller 49’) - East Fife 1 (Smith 53’)

Man of the Match: Kevin Smtih

Livingston XI: Kelly, Miller, Neill, Crighton, Halkett, Longridge, Cadden (Byrne 62’), Pittman, Buchanan (Carrick 84’), De Vita (Currie 80’), Mullen

Subs Not Used: Maley, Sinclair, Mullin, Watt

Booked: None

East Fife XI: Hurst, Mercer, Slattery, Kane, Kerr, Brown, Smith (McManus 76’), Wilkie, Wallace (Insall 83’), Naysmith, O’Hara (Goodfellow 65’)

Subs Not Used: Lamont, Austin

Booked: Kane, Smith

Dismissed: Hurst, McManus

Referee: Craig Napier

Attendance: 907

East Fife travelled to Livingston to face the league leaders but left empty handed and with two red cards following a 3-1 defeat. East Fife made two changes to the side that narrowly lost to Airdrieonians the previous week with Kevin O’Hara and Tony Wallace replacing Jamie Insall and the suspended Jonathan Page.

As in the reverse fixture at Bayview in November, it was East Fife who started the brightest with Tony Wallace unlucky to see his shot from the edge of the box deflected behind for a corner in the 9th minute. East Fife were causing problems from set pieces and were presented with a couple of good opportunities to get on the score sheet. First Kevin Smith hit the side netting after Kane headed Mercer’s corner back across goal before O’Hara should have done better at the back post following a Naysmith free kick.

Livingston had their first sight of goal on 25 minutes when Crighton broke free of his marker but couldn’t direct his header from Cadden’s corner. East Fife then had a great chance to take the lead when O’Hara collected the ball inside his own half and skipped away from the Livingston defence but his pass to Wallace came too late and his was unable to control with only the ‘keeper to beat. Livingston were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box from which Cadden fired wide before the hosts opened the scoring on the stroke of half time. A quick East Fife throw in was intercepted by Miller who broke forward down the right and picked out Buchanan to tap in from a couple of yards.

Livingston doubled their lead five minutes after the break when Miller fired home a free kick from 25-yards into the top corner. Kevin Smith pulled one back for East Fife on 53 minutes when he collected Brown’s flick on inside the area and lifted the ball over the defender before firing past Kelly from close range. East Fife were reduced to 10-men on 63 minutes when Mark Hurst was dismissed for a last-man challenge on Mullen inside the area. In a triple 

Due to the postponement of our match versus Alloa, the club are now inviting supporters to come along to Bayview and watch a training session from 10.30am followed by a Question and Answer with the Players and Manager at 12noon.

Afterwards why not quiz the Directors and listen to guest speakers (to be confirmed).

Entry is free and the bar will be open.

Reminder that SPFL League One match - East Fife v Alloa Athletic - Tuesday 15th November 2016 (7.45pm kick off) at Bayview.

Reluctantly, we have agreed to release Paul McManus early from his contract due to his new work commitments.

Manager Gary Naysmith had this to say on the matter " Since Paul started his new job, he has been struggling to combine his work commitments with our training and match day schedule. We have tried to help Paul with this matter by allowing him to miss a nights training and only come through to Edinburgh once a week to train, and although this has helped to a certain degree, Paul was still struggling to report on time on match days due to him working on a Saturday morning and this was starting to become stressful for him. This has been on Paul's mind for a few weeks now and I am sure it played a part in his sending off at Livingston. He spoke to me after the game and explained his situation and I have now reluctantly agreed to Paul's request. He felt that it wasn't right to take a wage from the club when he couldn't totally commit himself to us and I am grateful for his honesty. I'd like to personally thank Paul for his contribution to the team since he came in at the end of last season. His experience off the park was a big factor in us winning the league and I wish him well in the future".

East Fife are back on the road again tomorrow, making the relatively short journey across the Forth to face league leaders Livingston. Speaking earlier player manager Gary Naysmith looked ahead to the game.

"Livingston have built a good strong squad that contains some good experienced players and they are currently the form team in the league just now. However, the last meeting between the sides ended up with us deservedly winning 3-1 at Bayview, and the players and staff are all looking forward to the return game tomorrow.

Squad wise, we will still be short on numbers as Scott Robinson and Chris Duggan are still not fit, whilst Jonathan Page is suspended after his red card last week. Kevin O'Hara is available again though after missing last week's game through international duty."

The Fifers' last visit to Livingston was back in January 2011 when two late goals for the hosts gave them a 4-3 win.