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Match Report - Buckie Thistle
East Fife were still seeking their first win of their League Cup campaign as they played host to Buckie Thistle on Tuesday night. The insanely hot conditions added an element of challenge to playing the Highland League outfit who are coming off the back of numerous successful seasons. The Fifers were also looking at breaking the “B” curse after losing our three previous encounters against non-SPFL sides who’s name began with the letter B.
Following the score draw against Alloa Athletic last week, Stevie Crawford made 3 changes to the starting eleven, with Pat Slattery, Jude Smith and Jack Healy all starting. The absence of Stewart Murdoch made way for Scott Mercer to take the captain’s armband.
Buckie showed their intent early on as they created a few good chances which amounted to nothing. The first real chance fell to the hands of the green and white hooped visitors in the 22nd minute. A series of tragic events at the back for East Fife led to Buckie Thistle gaining possession in the box, Scott Adams then took a touch to compose himself before chipping the ball over a stranded Smith into the corner of the net, putting Buckie 1-0 up to the disbelief of the fife faithful.
Buckie Thistle didn’t sit back after the goal as Macaskill saw his shot saved from close range by Smith. Jack Healy was the first to enter the referees book for a cynical tackle on Munro.
Buckie doubled their lead on 36 minutes, when Macaskill, on the edge of the box, passed to a completely unmarked Adams just inside the penalty area, who excellently places the ball into the top corner past a diving Smith.
With half time approaching, East Fife were desperate to pull one back, as Shepherd found himself on the left flank and played a pass into the feet of Kieran Millar, however his shot was well saved by Buckie ‘keeper Balint Demus. The referees whistle went for half time after a very disappointing first half of football for the Fife.
At half time Buckie thistle made a triple substitution in attempt to see the game through and seal the win. East Fife made a single substitution where Healy made way for Ryan Schiavone.
Less than a minute into the half East Fife already had a sight of goal thanks to a long throw from Aaron Steele which was met by Kieran Millar who managed to escape from his marker, but he could only head the ball into the hands of Demus.
After a large amount of pressure was pilled on to Buckie from East Fife early on, the Methil men managed to get one goal back after Shepherd beats Demus to a through ball, before rounding the keeper to score into a completely empty goal making the game 2-1. East Fife, clearly now in the ascendancy, managed to draw the match level two minutes later with Steele’s long throw once again posing a major threat, this time finding the head of Mercer who elegantly steered the ball into the bottom corner.
East Fife were a lot more dominant in the second half and were presented with another golden chance when Mercer’s cross was well met by Schiavone at the near post, the attempt, however, was put behind for a corner. In the 77th minute Buckie collected two yellow cards in quick succession after a few unnecessary challenges from the Jags. A short while later, the Steele-Mercer combo proved to be prolific once again when another long throw into the mixer was met again by Mercer and placed into the same corner as before putting East Fife into a well-deserved 3-2 lead.
With 8 minutes to go the coaches made the final change of the night for the Fife with Mikey Cunningham coming on to replace Shepherd. Buckie were the last to see a sight of goal in the 94th minute, attempting to give a sucker punch to the Fife team, Murray’s effort was blazed well over the bar from inside the box to relief of the East Fife supporters. Directly after Chris Fordyce blew up for full time ending the 4 month winless drought in competitive matches in a very exciting fashion. A good comeback from the team provided a great deal of entertainment for the Fife faithful, who clearly enjoyed the evening.
Andrew Laing
Summary of Q&A - Saturday 16th July 2022
Below is a summary of the Question & Answer session held with Manager Stevie Crawford and the board of directors on Saturday 16th July 2022.
Q. Do you envisage this as more of a transition season, bedding some of the younger players in rather than one where we’ve got an immediate chance of winning the league with an aim to really having a go next season?
Stevie Crawford (SC): When you look at the numbers & the turnover we’ve had, the squad is younger, but I won’t hide behind young players. That’s a responsibility I’ve got to take first & foremost as manager, but we’ll grow together. I hope the fans will come on the journey with and as long as they’re seeing that the young players & senior players are integrating together & giving their best for East Fife, we’ll have a successful season.
Q. Do you think we have enough experience to bring on the younger players?
SC: Football isn’t as easy now as just meeting a player & signing them. The pyramid is bigger & some of the teams in the Lowland league are out-paying, not just East Fife, but some teams in league 1 so we won’t use that as an excuse. The thing that’s important to me when I get to the stage of signing a player, whether he’s 16 or 36, is that he has to want to play for the club I’m working at. I think we’ve added a good mix so far. It’s been a very, very strange window. Speaking to other managers, even some In the Premiership are struggling to attract players. There’s still budget money there but it’s trying to get the right players in who can take the club forward, that’s the important thing for us.
Q. How many more players are you looking to bring in?
SC: It’s hard to put a number on it because if the right one comes up, I may have to spend a bit more which then means maybe having a body less. But at the moment for competition, we’re looking at probably 3 as well as the possibility of a couple of loan signings. What I won’t do is spend the club’s money bringing a player in who isn’t going to hit all of the challenges we’re going to face this year. I’d rather go with developing younger players and take a hit that way for a shorter period of time as they’ll kick on quicker. However, if the right player becomes available, I can assure you we’ll be in the market to bring them in.
Q. Are you confident that guys you’ve got just now are going to be able to score 20/25 goals a season?
SC: Again, it’s about competition for places. I know as a striker, that if the manager brings in another striker there’s only one way I can go & I need to make sure I’m better than him. At this moment in time can we turn round and say we’ve got a 20-goal a season striker? No, but I do think there’s potential we can get boys there. I think what we’ve got to try & do is get someone to hit double figures as quickly as possible which can very quickly transpire into 15 or 20 goals. We held our own for a number of games last season but couldn’t score at the right moments, so we need to find that cutting edge.
Q. Can you give any more details as to why Ryan Wallace was released early from his contract?
SC: A lot of the conversations I have with my players will stay between me & the player but when Ryan decided he no longer wanted to be at East Fife, it was a no brainer & I took it straight to the Chairman but the conversations I had with Ryan will stay between me & him. I appreciate his reasons, but my main focus is that I want players who want to play at East Fife.
Q. We have a number of young players we could potentially sell on. If so, would that money be reinvested in the club?
SC: For me, potentially losing players to bigger clubs is a good problem to have. If we did get a bid for one of our players before the end of August, we’re then in a position where we can look at how we can reinvest that into the squad & what can we do for the good of East Fife. We can look at it as we don’t want to lose him but, the bigger picture, is people in the game look & say boys at East Fife are getting a chance now so you maybe open doors that aren’t currently open, whether than be loan signings or to those coming from other clubs
Q. How would you rate our pre-season so far?
SC: From a selfish point of view, I would’ve loved to have had a few more bodies in but we’ve been able to work on a lot of things, including our play out of possession that will stand us in good stead with games get though cause you’re not going to get 90 minutes your way. That’s something that was difficult to do last year at the time I came in. It’s been great to get to know some of the younger players as well & they’ve been a credit to themselves. I think we’ve had a testing week when we played Hearts & Dunfermline but in the main, I’ve been happy with how things have gone.
Questions to Club Board
Q: Our season ticket prices are the highest in the league, how do you decide the prices and are you still happy with the prices set?
Jim Stevenson (JS): I would love to be able to charge £10 for season tickets but unfortunately our bills have gone through the roof. The second half of 2021 was a terrible time for the finances at the club. Like everyone else who has problems with their household bills, it’s no different here. Energy bills have gone up, insurance has gone up, players wages have gone up, so our finances have taken a bit of a hammering. Then on top of that not doing as well on the park as we thought we would last year has hit us both in prize money and with people coming through the gate.
We had big discussion among the board, and we eventually decided on the price rise. No one wants to put prices up at any time, but we hope, and we have done this before, that we will be able to hold them at the level for a few years.
What have tried to compensate by letting East Fife Community Football Club kids in for nothing and by adding a new category in for under 19s in full-time education.
So far (to 16th July) we have 241 season ticket holders which is comparable to last season (270 total), but we do anticipate more purchases prior to the start of the season. Believe it or not, some fans won’t purchase their season ticket until after the early bird period has ended as they want to help the club. We have also extended our early bird pricing until 25th July 2022 which we hope will also help people.
Q: How many of the season ticket sales are kids?
JS: There are 14 16-19-year-old student tickets and 36 under 16, however the kids season tickets are down this year as a number of them are with the Community Club, who are getting free admission and therefore not purchasing their season tickets this year.
Q: Other clubs are in the same position with gas price rises etc, but they aren’t putting their prices up as much as us, is this a short-term plan or a longer-term business model?
JS: I hope this is short-term. Every other year when we’ve put prices up, we’ve held them so it’s likely we’ll do the same again.
John Donaldson (JD): With our stadium being located right beside the sea we have to spend a lot more money on the upkeep compared to a lot of other clubs. The money we’ve had to spend on this stadium over the years is way above an equivalent stadium inland. All of the seats have been changed out as originally, they had been put in with milestone paint and that cost £45,000 to change and then with the Community use of the pitch, we’re seeing an increased number having to be changed out due to damage from stray footballs.
JD: We had to change the camera system as the existing one had legs that froze in the wintertime. The sound system is being upgraded. The guttering is leaking, but we need a long dry spell to get the guttering cleaned out and fixed and that won’t be cheap but it’s something we have to do. The girders weren’t done particularly well when they were galvanised and they’re beginning to rust. The steps all need painted with the anti-slip paint, some of the doors are falling apart and every year we need the sea end of the stadium pointed.
JD: We have a core set of volunteers, about 8-10, who are here Monday, Wednesday and Friday and there are jobs that we wouldn’t get to even if we were here 5 days a week. There’s always stuff needing repaired or replaced and although it’s not solely down to the stadium’s location, it is one of the reasons, and that’s a lot of where the money’s going compared to other clubs.
Q: What can the club do commercially to bring fans into watch this season?
Stephen Mill (SM): We are just finalising our commercial brochure which will be published very soon which will outline how were selling our advertising and hospitality packages, but it is something we’re actively looking at. We fell short on that last season through the loss of our Commercial Director, Ken Henderson so we’re now trying to get back on track in that department. It’s a very good question and something we are really taking seriously.
Q: Are we likely to see the Commercial Director’s position filled soon?
JS: We are working on it, and we’ll hopefully be able to make an announcement soon.
Q: There was a shortfall in prize money from finishing bottom of the league, how much was that and does that make a big difference?
JS: The shortfall is made up of various things, partly in gate money, but the shortfall in prize money was between £20,000 - £30,000 and that is having a knock-on impact now as the prize money in League Two is even less.
Q: Where is the majority shareholder, are they not prepared to put money into the club and why not?
Liam Anderson (LA): Anyone can go onto Companies House and see what the breakdown of the shareholding in the club is, it’s public knowledge.
JS: When it comes to the majority shareholder, they put a lot of money into the club when the club needed it (back when they purchased their shares) to keep the club running. After the previous regime where we ended up in £250,000 of debt, we sold ground to the major shareholder (the cost of the land was independently valued and sold at that valuation), however the actual stadium all still belongs to the Football Club and there’s no debt on it. If the majority shareholder doesn’t want to put money into the club there’s nothing we (as a board) can do about it, but I do ask. I ask continually.
LA: The issue of the club ownership will remain the same until someone, or some entity, can purchase the majority shareholders shares. The majority shareholder has a price in mind and if they don’t get that price, they’re not selling, and there’s nothing any of us can do about that. The bottom line is that if someone else comes along and pays the money that they’re looking for, then that person becomes the majority shareholder, holding 51%, and they could be in the same boat and not prepared to put any money into the football club.
Q: If we were to sell a player on and recoup money from that, how much of that money could the majority shareholder claim?
JS: Absolutely nothing. The majority shareholder gets no money out of the club at present and would still get zero.
SM: Financially, we are keeping our head above water, and that’s a challenge in itself but we’re not going to go out of business. We’re not making profits but everything that comes into the club is spoken for. If we were fortunate enough to sell a player on, that money has goes into the coffers of the club – as it has with the two players we’ve sold on in the last few years. There’s nothing to hide there, any transfer fee is shown in the club’s accounts, so nobody has taken money from the club in that aspect.
Q: How much is it to buy a share in the club and are there any available to buy? Do all shareholders attend AGMs?
JS: A share costs £4.50. We have a limited amount available (around 1000), but we will only sell them in a minimum block of 50. Nobody has to attend an AGM, in fact, very few actually do (around 15 at the last meeting).
Q: Do you think it would be prudent to have a fans panel in terms of trying to improve the club’s relationship with fans?
LA: Any member of the board is available for anyone to come and ask questions at any time. If someone has a specific request, we will try and take that on board. There are things we can’t do because financially we just can’t do it but where we can, we will. The idea of a fans group is something we can look in to. Unfortunately though, inevitably there would be things that would be discussed at a fans group that can’t be discussed outside of the group until they’re finalised so the make-up of that group would have to contain people who understand that, but it is something we’re happy to discuss that.
Q: There may be fans who have a particular skill set that could possibly benefit the club, whether that be a trade, sales or as a volunteer, would you be interested in hearing from them?
JD: We have a base of about 8-10 volunteers who come regularly to help with maintenance but only one of them is under 60, so anyone interested who is maybe a bit younger would certainly be a help. If anyone feels they could be of benefit to the club, in any form, we’re not going to turn down help.
Q: We’re now onto the 3rd season with the same home strip, are you concerned about the loss of a potential revenue stream?
JS: There are a few reasons why we’ve kept the same strip. Firstly, the fans voted for this strip, it’s been a hugely popular and is still being purchased worldwide. Second, there is shortage of strips among all suppliers at the moment. But mainly, it’s our 120th anniversary next season so we are working on a commemorative strip to mark the occasion.
Q: When the league fixtures were released for this season the first thing everyone noticed was that 3 of our first 4 away matches are to Elgin, Stranraer and Annan. Is there any way the club could’ve complained about that or raised it with the SPFL?
JS: Unfortunately, not. The fixtures are compiled by a third-party company. When you don’t have a local derby, you have to fall into the spaces. To have them all away in the first quarter of the season is expensive for both the club and fans. Playing in this league will also cost us a lot more money with the travelling. Trips to Ross County and Elgin in consecutive weeks will cost us around £5000 for the two trips when we add on buses and pre/post-match food.
LA: It’s exactly the same for fans and it’s going to be hard for some people make all of these games – it’s a big ask. Unfortunately, it also means because we also have them in the third quarter which is right in the middle of winter and two of the teams play on grass.
Q: With sustainability and global warming being such a big issue at the moment, does the club have any ambitions to move towards a greener outlook?
LA: We have the solar panels on the far side of the pitch and the initial deal was that they were going to power the stadium but somewhere along the line someone (outside of the club) made a mistake and if we were to switch the floodlights and the water heaters on at the same time, we would blow the whole of Levenmouth. So, what we get from the solar panels is a very small rental, but they provide no power to the stadium. We would have had to rely on someone manually flicking a switch at the grid whenever we wanted to use anything of any power.
LA: We also had a very lucrative deal planned to have a wind turbine in the car park behind the sea wall that was reliant on feed-in tariffs. However, when they went to start work on it, they discovered that where they’d planned to put the wind turbine was directly above the main sewar that runs from Levenmouth out to the sea. They went back to the planner to ask if they could move it 5 meters, but the planners said no unless you make a brand-new application and by that time, we would’ve missed the tariffs. That scheme would’ve been of huge financial benefit to the club and that turbine would’ve powered the stadium making us largely self-sufficient for energy.
LA: All of the lights in the stadium, along with the floodlights, have been switched over to LED and we have our recycling streams. The pie stalls are franchised so it would be up to them if they wanted to introduce things like recyclable cups, but we are open to taking on as much as we can to make us self-sufficient and greener.
Q: Was the club successful with their covid insurance claim?
JS: We got nothing. We went back to them 3 times but were refused repeatedly. Another club did get something from their insurers but that was because there was something specific in their terms that wasn’t in ours.
Match Preview - Buckie Thistle
We continue the 2022/23 season by welcoming Buckie Thistle to Bayview for our new match in the Premier Sports Cup for the first meeting between the sides.
Squad News
Connor McManus and Scott Gallacher continue to miss out through long-term and the coaching staff will make a decision this evening on a few players who have been carrying knocks.
Team Colours
East Fife will be in our traditional home colours of black/gold strips, black shorts and black stockings with the goalkeeper in all-green.
Buckie Thistle will be wearing their traditional colour of green & white strips, green shorts and green stockings with the goalkeeper in blue.
Match Tickets
Tickets for today’s match are available to buy online here ahead of the game. Please note, there will be no cash turnstiles and tickets must be purchased in advance. Tickets can be presented digitally or printed at home. Those unable to purchase tickets online can buy theirs over the phone (01333 426323) and collect from the matchday reception.
Ticket prices are as follows:
Adults - £15
Concessions* - £10
Under 16s** - £3
*Over 65s and full-time students. Proof of eligibility may be requested
**Proof of age may be requested
Season tickets are not valid for this match. Turnstiles will open at 6.45pm.
Car Parking
Car parking is available at both ends of the stadium for both home and away supporters free of charge.
Live Streaming
Those unable to attend today’s game can watch the match live on East Fife TV for £15. Coverage will begin at 19:30 BST. The match can be purchased here.
East Fife TV Overseas Gold subscribers can watch the match as part of their regular subscription.
Matchday Catering
The stadium bars will be open to both sets of supporters from 6.30 pm this evening for pre- and post-match refreshments.
Pie stalls will be open at both ends of the stadium from 6.45 pm. Please note, our pie stalls are cash only.
Matchday Programme
Issue 2 of our matchday programme is available to purchase for £2.50. Please look out for our programme sellers around the stadium before the game. This is a double issue covering our home Premier Sports Cup matches.
Match Report - Alloa Athletic
East Fife continued their Premier Sports Cup action with a visit to the Indodrill stadium to face Alloa Athletic. East Fife only made change to the starting eleven that lost to Dunfermline Athletic in the previous game with Lucas Williamson, making his first starting appearance for the club replacing Alan Trouten. Alloa’s line-up consisted of a few notable names, with the likes of Connor Sammon, Stefan Scougall and ex-East Fife player Daniel Church staring for the Wasps.
Alloa started very brightly, East Fife however had the first chance of the game when Liam Newton drove forward from his half into the final third and played the ball to Ryan Schiavone on the edge of the box who took a shot but the curling effort was well wide and over.
Alloa took the lead on the 12th minute after Scougall whipped in a good cross to the danger area of the box where Aaron Steele, attempting to clear the ball, could only turn it into his own net putting the Wasps 1-0 up.
Alloa dictated most of the possession for the rest of the half, yet it was East Fife who were growing into the game considerably towards the end of the half, with a few good chances. In the 43rd minute Brogan Walls sent a delightful low cross towards the centre of the box which was met by an unmarked Newton but his shot was straight into Jay Hogarth’s hands. To the disappointment of the away fans, the half time whistle went shortly after, curtailing the East Fife momentum.
The teams came out for the second half and the ref got the game going again with East Fife needing a result to keep alive our hopes in the competition.
The visitors came out all guns blazing, with clear intentions that they were looking for a victory. After 3 minutes East Fife created a good chance with Williamson, after playing a very good 1-2 with Scott Shepard, drove into the box, rolling the ball along the face of goal, the Walls just failed to get a touch on as the keeper collects comfortably.
Cameron O’Donnell was the first to go into the referee’s book after a challenge on Aaron Steele that he was perhaps fortunate to see only a yellow card.
With 20 minutes to go excitement began to brew in the away end as Scott Mercer was over a free kick in a dangerous position on the edge of the box. He took the free kick very well with the ball bouncing back off the post into the path of Shepard who calmly scored into an open net, levelling the game at one each.
Both teams were keen to net a winner to avoid the nervy nature of penalty kicks with the play flowing end-to-end but nothing really challenged either goalkeeper. After 3 minutes of added time the ref blew up for full time and penalty kicks would decide who would take home a bonus point.
East Fife started the shoot-out well with Mercer, Mikey Cunningham and Jack Healy all scoring their penalties, putting us into a 3-2 lead heading into Alloa’s third penalty, taken by Andy Graham which was well saved by Fleming at the centre right of the goal. East Fife seemed to be in a good position before Stewart Murdoch hit the cross bar with his spot kick, levelling the shootout at 3-3. Newton and Walls then slotted home their respectively penalties nicely. The shootout was into sudden death and level at 5-5 when Pat Slattery’s spot kick was saved by Hogarth, giving Alloa a golden chance to win the shootout which they duly took as George Stanger slotted home to claim the bonus point for the Alloa Athletic.
The shootout result wasn’t what we wanted, but a good performance by the team against a squad in a league higher, gave the Fife faithful a good deal of optimism heading into the final two cup games before the league campaign begins.
Andrew Laing
Club Open Day - Saturday 16th July 2022
We’re pleased to confirm details of our open day this Saturday (16th July).
An open training session will take place from 10:45am when supporters are invited to watch the session from either the stand or The Jeek Fleming Lounge.
This will be followed by an opportunity to meet the players and management team before a question and answer session with Manager Stevie Crawford and the Board of Directors from 12:15pm.
Those unable to attend the Q&A can submit their questions in advance by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Jeek Fleming Lounge will be open throughout the day for refreshments and the club shop will also be open.
Please note, no access to the stand will be permitted prior to 10:45am.
Kevin Smith Testimonial Golf Day
The next event in Kevin’s Testimonial year is a golf day at Royal Musselburgh Golf Club on Friday 5th August 2022.
There are only 39 spaces available which will be released on a first-come, first-taken basis by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The cost is £65 per player and the day will consist of a bacon roll & tea/coffee on arrival, round of golf and a two-course evening meal with various prizes also presented.
Details of the full day’s programme will be released nearer the time.
Demand is sure to be high for this so please book your space as soon as possible.