East Fife boss hoping for home advantage

East Fife losing 3-1 at Stirling Albion on Saturday (Pic: Kenny Mackay)

East Fife manager Greig McDonald is hoping two weeks off will boost his team’s chances of getting back to winning ways after losing 3-1 away to Stirling Albion on Saturday.

The Fifers have got three games on the trot at home at Methil’s Bayview Stadium coming up after a blank weekend and McDonald sees that as an ideal opportunity to get their Scottish League 2 campaign back on track.

That bit of breathing space will also allow time for a few players currently out injured to return ahead of their next game, against Annan Athletic on Saturday, December 3, with kick-off at 3pm.

Saturday’s loss was their second on the bounce following a 3-2 home defeat by Albion Rovers seven days earlier and it leaves them fourth in the table, on 21 points from 15 games.

Former Annan defender McDonald is hoping home advantage will help his team prevent that losing streak extending any further, though, telling EFTV after Saturday’s game: “We’ll keep going. Today would have been a good one to win – they’re all good ones to win – but we dust ourselves down and we’ve got a wee break now.

“That gets us one or two people back – Ryan Schiavone will be back, Aaron Steele will be back and Connor McManus might have a wee chance as well – so it’s good to get a fortnight’s break.

“I’m happy with the squad’s effort and application but disappointed to leave with nothing today, but we know why and we can now work and try to address that moving forward.”

Looking ahead to the Fifers’ three home matches on the spin in December against Annan, Bonnyrigg Rose and Stranraer, followed by a Christmas Eve trip to Dumbarton, the 40-year-old added: “I’m looking forward to three games at home.

“Hopefully the crowd will get behind us and hopefully the guys will keep giving us that effort and we’ll see if we can get as many points on the board as we possibly can in the run-up to Christmas.

“I look for maximum points in every game and this gives us a good chance to improve our home record.

“If we play like we have done in the last couple of weeks offensively, we’ll cause teams problems, and if we just show up at the back, we’re going to be able to kick on again and move ourselves hopefully even further up the league.”