Alan Trouten: Ace says 'stick together' to halt East Fife's alarming run

Alan Trouten leads East Fife's protestations after Kieran Millar's sending off (Pic: Kenny Mackay)

The Fifers were beaten 3-0 by Annan Athletic on Saturday afternoon at Galabank after going down to ten men when Kieran Millar was sent off for a second bookable offence just after the break.

Even with the man advantage, Greig McDonald’s side still were a goal down going into half time, with veteran striker Trouten admitting they need to smarter in both boxes.

"We worked hard but at times we were a little open," he told EFTV looking back on the defeat. "It is another tough result to take and it is three (losses) on the bounce now which isn’t good enough. We need to regroup and stick together if we want to make it through tough times.

“Football can change quickly so we need to work hard in training and come out the other side of this run of results.

“We have to be more clinical in both boxes, that is the difference at the moment between us and other teams – they are taking chances and we aren’t.

"We have to stay together as a team. I think we did that for the majority of the game but we lost soft goals.

"Once we go down to ten men, you have to be solid for 90 minutes and not just most of it.

“We need to win games of football quickly. We have dropped down to seventh place for a reason. It doesn’t matter if it is an ugly win, we don’t have to play good football, we just need to get back to winning ways.

“Stirling Albion (who East Fife face this weekend) have done well this season but there is no reason we cannot go out and beat them.”

The key moment of the match came in the 47th minute, when Kieran Millar was sent off by referee Chris Fordyce for lunging into Tony Wallace.

Trouten stuck up for the midfielder, saying he felt it was “poor” call by the man in the middle.

“It seemed harsh at the time,” he said. “Kieran (Millar) makes what I thought was a really good tackle at the time. His momentum sees him follow through into the boy but I don’t understand what he is meant to do one he has made the tackle.

He cannot just stop his leg mid-action and it was a poor decision in my eyes.”