East Fife 1-1 Forfar Athletic: Alan Trouten penalty earns point as boss Dick Campbell rages over 'unacceptable' first half

That point, which was secured courtesy of a second-half penalty from veteran forward Alan Trouten after Matty Allan’s opener for the visitors, sees the Fifers sit nine points behind fourth-placed Dumbarton, with just nine matches remaining.

And Bayview boss Dick Campbell didn’t hide away from his frustrations after the match, saying that he won’t accept the level of the performance that he witnessed in the first half against the Loons.

‘I was surprised considering what I had seen in training during the week before the match,’ he told East Fife TV post-match. ‘But they (the players) have obviously been getting away with that and I am not going to be accepting that. I took the paint off the walls at half time.

‘Only the second half (performance) will be acceptable to me and the players going forward. You do find out more about your team in disappointment. It is what it is.

‘They went about their jobs correctly in that second half and we could have actually gone on to win the match. I can see why we are in the bottom half of this league, when you play the way we did in that first half. It just didn’t look like their way anything there at all. I will need to get to the bottom of that.

‘The substitutions did make a big difference to the game. I am not doom and gloom whatsoever. The objective is to stay in this league and that was another point today to help us do that.’

Campbell added: ‘We are still learning about the players, I still don’t know most of the guys first names. But the players do know that standards that are and will be set going forward. If a player drops below that – then they won’t be playing.’

East Fife now travel to the third-placed The Spartans this Saturday with the Ainslie Park side coming into the match on the back of a 2-1 win against Bonnyrigg Rose last time out.