East Fife boss Darren Young pleased with selection headache

On the back of a couple of defeats, the Fifers hosted Albion Rovers on Saturday looking over their shoulder at the chasing pack behind them.

But there were no nerves in the performance, with the Methil men putting on a polished display on their way to a 2-0 win and all three points.

It not only pushed Rovers further behind them but, with Alloa losing at Stranraer, means the Fifers have gone from hunted to hunter within the space of a week and now keen to eat into the Wasps’ six point lead over them when they meet on Saturday.

Overall, it was a pretty decent week for the Fife gaffer.

He said: “We were able to move back to a 4-2-3-1 formation at the weekend which has been doing well for us all season.

“We kept it compact and looked good going forward.

“It was a really good performance and we could have scored even more.

“Pat Slattery should be scoring the chance he had but misses.

“Matthew Knox missed one as well and Chris Duggan could have had another.”

The scoring was opened early in the second half by Aaron Dunsmore, deployed by the Methil men in a more advanced forward position.

It certainly paid off as Dunsmore was given licence to get even further up the park than usual and cause problems.

“We know that Aaron has it in him to get forward like that,” said Young.

“We gave him licence to do that on Saturday and has been played through from a great pass by Kieran Millar.

“He still had work to do but finished well.”

Young was delighted with the work of his entire squad at the weekend, with the ‘keeper and defence rock steady, the midfield winning all their battles and the forward line ruthless.

Rovers just couldn’t match East Fife in the middle of the park, with Connor McManus and Kieran Millar dominating.

“Kieran has been doing really well for us again,” said the Fife manager.

“You always know what you’re going to get from him.

“His form is coming back again after a wee quiet spell and that comes when there’s fresh faces coming into the club and nobody can take their place for granted.

“Mark Lamont and Kyle Wilkie are trying to get back in as well so everybody is pushing for a place which gives me a good headache to have.”

With nine games of the season left, the manager is still harbouring hopes of gate crashing back into the top four.

He said: “You need to look at picking up 12-13 points from each quarter to make the play-offs and we fell a bit short.

“But there are nine games to go and if we can take at least 15 points from those games then that’ll give us an opportunity.

“That starts with three points at Alloa on Saturday.”