East Fife 1-2 Stranraer: Four without a win as League Two title tilt suffers

East Fife 1-2 Stranraer (Photo: Kenny Mackay)

Below par East Fife found themselves on the wrong end of another result last Saturday as Stranraer sealed a 2-1 win in Methil.

And that leaves Dick Campbell’s side without a win in four all competitions, with the Fifers also knocked off top spot in William Hill League Two by Peterhead, who won 3-2 at Stirling Albion to move a point ahead.

Max Guthrie gave the away side the lead when he prodded home after 26 minutes with the East Fife defence at sixes and sevens. Sean Murdoch was initially caught out by a long ball over the top – which was collected by Deryn Lang, who forced Liam McFarlane into a save which fell kindly to the Stranraer striker.

The Fifers did level the scoring just four minutes after the break when Andy Munro grabbed his second in as many games, heading home at the back post, but that counted for nothing when Matthew Grant popped up with the winner late on.

With nine minutes remaining, Connor McManus was caught out by Ryan Edgar, who smashed the post with an effort – with his team-mate quickest to react on the line.

"It is a poor result,” assistant manager Ian Campbell told East Fife TV. “Our first half performance was really poor and Stranraer were better than us. In the second half, we got up where we want to be and we were a good bit ahead of them but if you don’t capitalise on it then it doesn’t count for much.

"They go up the pitch and grab a late goal. We’ve dropped in the past few weeks and we need to sort it out – we did not play the way we wanted to play. There is an excuse if you want to find it. We’ve missed big time quality players and that is Fash (Nathan Austin) now out too.

"But that isn’t what we do. We have been shoehorning a team together but we are where we are. Fash’s injury looks a bit nasty, his shoulder came out. Any team would have Brian (Easton) and Alan (Trouten) in their team, and we are missing them."

Second-placed East Fife now travel to second bottom Clyde this Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Fifers fixture trip to Bonnyrigg Rose which was scheduled for Saturday, December 28 will now take place on Saturday, November 30.