As most of you are aware the SFA has suspended all league football below Championship level & all Scottish Cup matches from midnight tonight. Whilst, as a club, we are disappointed, we fully understand and support this course of action. As things stand, our next scheduled game will be away to Montrose in League One on 6th February and already that can’t come soon enough.
As a result, Bayview will be closed for everything other than essential maintenance. The office switchboard will however remain open during normal office hours.
Please stay safe & we hope to see you before too long.
Jim Stevenson
Chairman
We can confirm that Thomas Collins has joined League 2 side Stenhousemuir on loan until the end of the season.
Thomas joined the club in the summer from BSC Glasgow but with his match time limited so far this season, Manager Darren Young felt the midfielder would benefit from a run of regular first-team football: “I’m sure Thomas will make the most of his opportunity at Stenhousemuir and he’ll come back with a lot more experience which will stand him in good stead to come back into the squad next season.”
All the best Thomas!
We’re delighted to announce that Ryan Wallace has penned a 2.5-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Bayview until the summer of 2023.
Ryan has 90 appearances and 44 East Fife goals to his name over two spells at the Club.
Darren Young: “Ryan’s current contract was up at the end of the season so it’s great to get him signed up again. He’s done very well for us since re-joining last season so we’re delighted to extend his contract.”.
Well, it’s near the end of a very difficult year for everyone. We, as a club, have lost too many friends who were lifelong supporters, and our thoughts go out to all who have lost family and friends during this most trying of years.
On the football front we have managed to navigate through these months with a great deal of help from you, our wonderful fans who bought season tickets and donated in all the various ways available to help the club.
I must also thank all our sponsors who were able to support us at this time.
Added to them has been the James Anderson grant, SFA and SPFL grants also grants from the Government. They all very much help.
A special mention must go out to our volunteers who have consistently made themselves available to help the club every week. Without them it would have been impossible to carry out all the work required during the pandemic.
Thanks also to Fifers for the Community for all their work with the installation of the new floodlights and working hard to keep our local youngsters training and using Bayview.
The Management team & the playing squad have also been supportive since the start of the pandemic in March. We, as a Club, have done everything possible to look after our employees and their understanding & appreciation has helped ease our financial burden.
Our EFTV media team has soldiered on in very difficult circumstances and I thank them so much as their efforts mean that fans everywhere can still watch our games on matchday. On that, I would ask as many of our fans as possible to use the EFTV live streaming facility for our home games. This has been our only regular income since the start of the season, as it will likely be for the remainder of the season.
Finally, I would like to thank the Directors & staff for all the support and help I have had throughout this past year.
May the New Year see an end to the virus and that we are able to get back to some form of normality in the not-too-distant future.
Happy New Year
Jim Stevenson
Chairman.
On Saturday, we welcome Falkirk to the Locality Hub Bayview Stadium.
Due to ongoing government and Scottish Football restrictions, this match is being played behind closed doors with strictly no spectators permitted.
You can, however, watch the match live on East Fife TV from the comfort of your own home. The match is included in the Virtual Element of your season ticket & Gold Subscriptions with pay-per-view is available for £12.50.
East Fife TV’s coverage will begin at 2.30pm where we will be joined "in the studio" and on co-commentary by former player Kenny Deuchar.
Sign up here
We have been drawn at home against Tranent Juniors in the 2nd round of this year’s Scottish Cup.
Tranent are scheduled to visit the Locality Hub Bayview Stadium on Saturday 9th January 2021. Due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions, this match is likely to be played behind closed doors. Details on how to follow the game will be announced in due course.