We are delighted to confirm that Brett Long, Daryll Meggatt, Craig Thomson and Aaron Dunsmore have all agreed terms for the coming season.
21-year-old goalkeeper Brett Long started his career at Northern Irish side Cliftonville before moving to Motherwell in 2013 where he won the Scottish Youth Cup in 2016 before moving to Dundee United where he had loan spells at Forfar Athletic and Elgin City. Brett has also represented Northern Ireland at Under 16, 17 and 19 level.
Daryll Meggatt started his career with Queen’s Park in 2010 where spent two season, making 61 appearances in a spell which resulted in him being named in the PFA Scotland Third Division Team of the Year in 2011/12. He then moved on to the first of two spells with Alloa Athletic, where he was part of the side the won promotion to the Championship in his first season. Daryll signed for Dundee in April 2016, moving to Ayr United in 2017 before returning to Alloa Athletic at the start of last season.
22-year-old Craig Thomson has committed to another season at Bayview after joining East Fife in January from Premiership side St. Johnstone where he made 27 first team appearances. Craig began his career at local side Kennoway United and has also featured from Elgin City and Stranraer during loan spells from St. Johnstone. Craig featured 9 time for East Fife last season.
Young Player of the Year Aaron Dunsmore was next to sign up for another season at Bayview. Aaron joined the club in July last year and made 40 appearances for the Black and gold, scoring 3 goals. The 21-year-old came through the ranks at Hibernian before going out on loan to then Lowland League side Edinburgh City where he helped then gain promotion to the SPFL in 2015/16 before returning to Edinburgh City for season 2016/17.
We’re pleased to confirm that we’ve arranged three friendly matches at the Locality hub Bayview Stadium as we ramp up our preparations for next season.
We kick off our season by welcoming Lowland League side Cumbernauld Colts to Bayview on the 26th of June with an 8 pm kick off. Cumbernauld finished 6th in the Lowland league last season and include former Fifers Craig Murray and Stephen O’Neill in their ranks last season.
Next up we welcome our neighbours Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday 30th June (2 pm kick off). We last faced the Pars in the group stages of last season Betfred League Cup. After a 0-0 draw, the visitors picked up the bonus point with a 9-8 penalty shootout win – the standard of penalty kicks in this game was exceptionally high.
Finally, League Two title winning manager Gary Naysmith returns to Bayview with his Queen of the South side, which features former Fifer Scott Mercer, on Tuesday 3rd of July (kick off 7.45 pm). We last faced the Doonhammers back in April 2013 when goals from Stevie Campbell and Gareth Wardlaw had given East Fife a 2-0 lead at Palmerston with 15 minutes remaining, but a late double from Nicky Clark earned the home side a share of the points.
Admission prices for all three matches will be announced in due course.
We are delighted to announce that Ross Davidson, Ross Dunlop and Scott Agnew have all agreed terms to join East Fife for season 2018/2019.
24-year-old Ross Davidson started his senior career at Kilmarnock, making his debut as a substitute in December 2011 against Aberdeen before loan spells at Airdrie United and Albion Rovers before making the permanent move to Coatbridge in February 2015 for the remainder of their League Two title winning campaign and has made over 100 appearances for the side.
28-year-old centre-half Ross Dunlop joins the club from Stenhousemuir where he played a key role in helping the side gain promotion to League One through the play-offs last season. Ross’ previous clubs include Queen’s Park and Albion Rovers and has over 200 career first-team appearances to his name.
30-year-old attacking midfielder Scott Agnew started his career at Hamilton Academical in 2006 after previously turning out for Rangers at youth level. His previous clubs include Alloa Athletic, Ayr United, Stranraer, Dumbarton and St. Mirren before joining up with Stranraer again in 2016 where he has spent the last two seasons. Scott found the net on 13 occasions last season for the Stair Park side.
Welcome to Bayview guys!
The design for our new home strip has been finalised. We're sticking with our traditional black & gold stripes but switching to solid black sleeves & and a black collar for season 2018/2019. We're also introducing a new, all black 3rd choice strip for next season. Let us know what you think of the new designs!
I would like to thank the following players for their efforts on behalf of the club & wish them well for the future; Ryan Goodfellow, Ryan Inglis, Robert Jones, Mark Lamont, Ross Mutch, Kieran Millar, Kyle Wilkie & Kyle Wilson. We are currently speaking to Craig Watson, Aaron Dunsmore, Craig Thomson, Chris Duggan & Connor McManus but we must re-iterate that these players will be out of contract in June.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our loan players & wish them well as they return to their parent clubs, Scott Allardice (Dundee United), Matthew Knox (Livingstone), Adam Livingstone (Motherwell) & Ben Mackenzie (St. Johnstone).
As mentioned previously, the following players are still under contract; Kevin Smith, Jonathan Page, Mark Docherty, Chris Kane, Pat Slattery & Scott Linton.
We are planning an open day on for Saturday 23rd June, more details will be issued soon.
Jim Stevenson
Chairman
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Lindsay Hamilton as our new Goalkeeping Coach.
Lindsay started his playing career at Stenhousemuir in 1982 before going to make over 100 appearances for the Warrior’s. He moved onto Rangers in 1987 before spells at East Stirlingshire, Stirling Albion, Clydebank and Leeds United in the late 80’s. He joined Premier Division side St. Johnstone in 1990 and spent the next couple of years as their number 1 before moving onto Dunfermline in 1992.
After a short spell in Northern Ireland with Portdown, Lindsay signed on at Bayview in 1995. He made 76 appearances over 2 season at East Fife and was part of the team that won promotion to the First Division under Steve Archibald in 1995-96, during which he had 17 shut-outs.
Lindsay left Bayview in 1997 for Queen’s Park before ending his playing career back at Stenhousemuir, retiring at the end of the 1999/2000 season.
Lindsay joins the club from Albion Rovers where he worked with current Manager Darren Young and has previous coaching experience with Airdrie as well as the Scotland Under 17’s Women’s National Team as well as the Under 16s and Under 14s girl’s sides.
Lindsay will be working closely with Darren and Tony as they build a squad for the coming season. Welcome back to Bayview Lindsay!