East Fife squad is close to returning to full fitness, says boss Greig McDonald

The Fifers picked up a point in their 1-1 draw with seventh-placed Stenhousemuir on League 2 duty, a result which keeps them in the promotion play-off spots for now, a point above a resurgent Forfar Athletic side.

Agnew, who returned to the club for a second stint as a player/coach earlier this month after leaving Raith Rovers, managed 20 minutes despite not having played any football this campaign so far.

“We needed a bit of calmness in the middle of the park,” McDonald told EFTV of his introduction. “It is a little bit ahead of schedule for Aggy and he probably needs another week or so, but we thought it was the right time for him to go on and be that voice in the middle of the park.

“We had lost our way in the game. It was great to get Brogan Walls back on the park too. Jack (Healy) was out because he rolled his ankle in training on Thursday, but we are getting close now to having a fully fit squad. That is great news for us and we have to just keep plugging away at the moment.”

East Fife now host Stranraer this weekend at Bayview hoping to end a four match run without a win at home.

Jamie Hamill’s side come into the match yet to pick up an away win on league duty so far this campaign, and on the back of a 4-0 drubbing to Albion Rovers.

McDonald said ahead of Saturday’s match: “We are disappointed with that (our home record). We need to try and change that over the course of the final run-in of the season. It is a home game for us and hopefully the fans will get behind us.

“Hopefully the conditions are a little bit kinder on Saturday than what they were like at the weekend. If we played like we did for the first half an hour against Stenny for the majority of the second half then we would have been comfortable, but we didn’t and that has been our downfall.”