East Fife 1-2 Brechin City

This wasn't a game which will live long in the memory.
Kyle Wilkie weaves his way through the Brechin backline. Picture by Jim Corstorphine.Kyle Wilkie weaves his way through the Brechin backline. Picture by Jim Corstorphine.
Kyle Wilkie weaves his way through the Brechin backline. Picture by Jim Corstorphine.

That’s fine as far as East Fife are concerned because they’ll want to forget it as quick as they can.

There was very little between the sides at Bayview, but two pieces of sloppy defending cost the Methil club.

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As league newbies, East Fife will be aiming to take as many points from their home games as they can.

An early season defeat to Brechin would not have been part of the plan, although, in fairness, Darren Dods’ side have started the season well.

They started this game well, too - racing into the lead within four minutes.

Jason Kerr is a young defender who is growing in stature with every game that passes during his loan spell from St Johnstone.

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But he’ll be frustrated at the way Ross Caldwell was able to roll off him to race in on goal and beat Ryan Goodfellow.

The early opener signalled a false dawn that the 609 fans inside Bayview were set for a cracker.

Ali Love had a shot blocked but apart from that neither ‘keeper had much to do.

That was until towards the end of the first half when East Fife drew level.

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The home side had been dominating and made their perseverance pay off.

Paul McManus cleverly worked some space for himself inside the box.

But he couldn’t maneuver himself into position to get a shot away, Scott Robinson instead taking control and curling a fine effort past Graeme Smith.

The goal should have acted as a catalyst for the Fifers to go on and grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

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Instead they found themselves caught by another early sucker punch at the beginning of the second half.

The East Fife defence were unable to to clear their lines properly from a throw in and the ball broke to Finn Graham on the edge of the box.

The midfielder wasted no time in lashing an effort beyond Ryan Goodfellow.

It was barely a few minutes into the second period, but it was pretty much the last piece of notable action.

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Jordan Austin had a late glimpse of goal but he dragged his shot wide of the target.

Bayview boss Gary Naysmith said: “The defending for both goals has cost us the game.

“It’s happened quite a bit that we’re making individual errors.

“Stepping up a level we can’t do that.

“We were short of options to change things but it would have mattered if we had seven, 10 or 15 injuries, if you defend how we defended, you’re not going to win any games.

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“We got our goal and it was a game which could have gone either way.

“But we didn’t start the second half right and direct from a throw in they’ve scored a goal.

“It’s disappointing because we’ve worked on defending from throw ins at training.”