East Fife Girls & Women savour gr-eight trophy day with memorable win

The MGM Timber Bayview side secured the Barclays Scottish Women’s Championship title earlier this month with five matches to spare, and they will now play in SWPL2 next season, returning to the second tier after being relegated back in 2023.

East Fife were presented with the Championship trophy on Sunday – and they marked their special day with a resounding 8-0 win over Inverness Caley Thistle at home.

Star striker and skipper Teri Skivington netted four goals while Katie Bryce’s brace and strikes from Brodie Rigby-Wilson and Harriet Anderson rounded off a memorable day for the Fifers.

Speaking to the East Fife Mail, manager Anderson – who came out of retirement to play in net this season – hailed the wider impact of the club returning to the SWPL.

"It is all about showing the younger ones that if you are good enough and want to play at a good level then you are able to stay in Fife,” she said. “You could potentially go all the way up from age four until you retired.

“That is the most important thing for me. We had mascots from our under-8s, under-10s and under-12s with us and they all looked like they had played and won the league with how excited they were. I love that about our club.

"Sometimes it feels like you try to be a club focusing on performance or focusing on community and trying to do both can be quite difficult. But I would say that this is now the closest we have been to doing both extremely well. We still have a lot to work to on but we can really proud of the season.”

On the prospect of playing SWPL football, Anderson admitted that the squad will need some new additions if they are to be competitive next season. She is hoping to take advantage of the loan system in particular to bolster the group ahead of the big step up.

She revealed: “I think we would struggle if we started tomorrow. We will need to bring in new additions if we want to compete. We don’t want to go up and finish bottom. We want to stay up and win matches.

"We have already been in contact with some clubs about getting some top young players in on loan. Hearts is one team that we are hoping to have a strong relationship with.”

East Fife haven’t lost a league match since November, and the team have totally dominated a tightly-contested Championship.

Anderson heaped praise on her team and those behind the scenes who have been the unseen heroes.

"We have so many brilliant people invovled who have put so much work in,” she beamed. “Stuart Hay and Johnny Harrow have been key as our head coaches and they give us so much time. Our goalkeeping coach Mark Grant and physio Megan Roberts make up a brilliant team.

"Off the pitch we have so many fab people invovled too. Special mentions go to Leanne Stewart (treasurer), Johanna Clark (socials) and Eddie Doig our brilliant chairperson.”