A win can see us looking up

A win over the Red Lichties will see East Fife leapfrog their visitors, possibly into third place in League One depending on how Albion Rovers get on away to Airdrie.

Regardless of results elsewhere, three points would at the very least see East Fife return to the play-off zone - a healthy place to be as the second quarter of the campaign continues.

Young reckons it would be the perfect remedy to the side’s poor 4-1 defeat at Alloa on Saturday.

But Arbroath will arrive confident of taking the win themselves, having thumped Airdrie 7-1 on Saturday at Gayfield.

The Fife boss said: “They’ll be buzzing after that result and will also be out to make amends for us beating them earlier in the season.

“But if we can go out and get the win then it could push us up to third place in the table.

“The second quarter has started now and we’ve set ourselves new targets.”

Young admitted he was disappointed with the manner of the goals shipped to Alloa after Kyle Wilkie had rifled the side into an early lead.

‘Keeper Mark Hurst will certainly feel like he could have done better with the first when he dropped the ball at the feet of PJ Crossan.

The second was a free-kick swung in from the line which nobody attacked to clear, the third from a corner and the fourth from a set-piece on the edge of the box.

“We were looking comfortable after getting a great goal through Kyle early on,” said Young.

“But they get the ball down the right and put in a cross which our goalie has spilled.

“There was still nothing in the game until they get that free-kick 35 yards out which we don’t deal with and it’s 2-1 and I don’t think they’ve had a proper shot on target.

“Their third goal, I don’t know if that was offside and the fourth is another set-piece.

“But we’re still joint fourth in the table and have the likes of Jonathan Page and Chris Kane to come back.

“Something we always had at Albion Rovers was a settled back four but we’re just having to change ours all the time at the moment.

“We’re putting full backs into the centre of defence and pulling midfielders in to play left back.

“Teams will always have a spell of injuries and hopefully that’s us coming out of ours now.

“Jonathan Page will come back in for us though which is a big bonus.”

One of the positives from the weekend was the debut of on-loan Dundee defender Jordan Piggott.

The 18-year-old was signed on a short term loan deal just hours before Saturday’s game and impressed boss Young.

“I thought he was excellent,” said the manager.

“He came straight in and was one of our best players.

“It’s only a 28 day loan and we’ll see what we can maybe do after that.”

Craig Watson will miss Saturday’s game while the Fifers wait on the fitness of Scott Linton and Chris Kane.

Jonathan Page is available again after serving a two game suspension.