East Fife vs Stenhousemuir

Stenhousemuir travelled to Bayview hoping to build on their good win against Dumbarton last week. Gary Naysmith made two changes to that side. Both Nicky Jamieson and Nat Wedderburn returned to the starting lineup with Gregor Buchanan and Adam Brown dropping out. 

It took just four minutes for the Warriors to open the scoring, captain Ross Meechan had a free run, and he fired a header past Allan Fleming in the East Fife goal to put the Warriors into an early lead.

The game calmed down after the early goal with both sides trying to get a decent run of play going however neither side were really able to do so.

East Fife went close to getting an equaliser. Nathan Austin had a great run down the right wing, his cross found Ryan Schiavone but he was well pressed by Darren Jamieson and that stopped him getting a shot away.

This started a wave of East Fife attacks. None were good enough really to test Jamieson. Nathan Austin had the best chance as he was found unmarked at the back post, but he couldn’t get his volley on target.

Nathan Austin did get his goal just two minutes before the interval. He was found in the box after a clever run without a Stenhousemuir defender tracking him and he was able to calmly slot it past Jamieson to level the match. 

The Warriors started the second half the better of the two sides having a number of set plays. But unfortunately for Stenhousemuir, they were unable to take advantage of the opportunities.

It took until 10 minutes into the second half for East Fife to have their first opportunity. Nathan Austin had an effort saved by Jamieson.

The second half then became very stop start with both teams conceding multiple fouls, this meant both sides couldn’t get any patterns of play going. 

Stenhousemuir started to create a few more chances and have more possession around the 70-minute mark but Allan Fleming really didn’t really have a save to make. 

East Fife had a golden opportunity to take the lead deep into injury time. Brogan Walls ran forward and put his shot just wide of the target fooling the home crowd who had thought it went in. 

Just a couple of minutes later the referee blew for full time and ended what was a very even game between the two sides. 

LINE-UPS

East Fife | Fleming, Page, Easton, Newton, Schiavone [Shepherd 64?], McManus, Millar, Trouten, Healy, Walls, Austin

Substitutes not used | Nicol, Cunningham, Murray, Beveridge, Ramsay

Goals | Austin 42?

Assists | Trouten 42?

Bookings | Page, Maillar, Austin

Stenhousemuir | D Jamieson, Meechan, Lynch, N Jamieson, Bilham, Wedderburn, Jacobs [Berry 63?], Anderson, Yates [Brown 88?], O’Reilly [Rodden 79?], Aitken

Substitutes not used | Lyle, Kirkpatrick, Stirling

Goals | Meechan 5?

Assists | Yates 5?

Bookings | Lynch

Match Reaction | Ross Meechan