East Fife now within point of top spot after comeback yields 4-2 win v Spartans

Nathan Austin celebrating after scoring twice for East Fife as they beat Edinburgh’s Spartans 4-2 at home on Saturday (Photo: Kenny Mackay)

East Fife bounced back from two defeats on the trot by three-goal margins and falling behind by 2-0 on Saturday to beat Edinburgh’s Spartans 4-2 and double goal-scorer Nathan Austin wants to see his side keep those winning ways up away to Forfar Athletic this coming Saturday.

Manager Dick Campbell’s Methil men went into the weekend’s match at home at Bayview Stadium looking for their 17th win of the season after being beaten 5-2 away to Edinburgh City seven days prior and 3-0 hosting Stranraer the Saturday before that but first-half goals past home keeper Liam McFarlane from Jamie Dishington on 17 minutes and Blair Henderson from the penalty spot in stoppage time left that looking like a tall order.

It turned out to be a game of two halves, however, as the Fifers matched their visitors’ two unanswered pre-interval goals within ten minutes of play resuming and added another couple in a four-minute flurry later on to secure all three points in front of a crowd of 674.

Their scorers were captain Alan Trouten on 50 minutes, fellow midfielder Michael McKenna on 53, that being his first goal since arriving from Falkirk in January, and striker Nathan Austin on 84 and 88.

Nathan Austin celebrating with Michael McKenna after one of his two goals for East Fife as they beat Edinburgh’s Spartans 4-2 at home on Saturday (Photo: Kenny Mackay)

That win, combined with table-toppers Peterhead being held to a goalless draw away to second-from-bottom Forfar at the same time, takes the second-placed Fifers to within a point of pole position in football’s William Hill League Two.

They’re now on 56 points from 31 fixtures, with manager Jordon Brown’s Peterhead on 57 from the same number of matches, but Austin is focusing on his own team’s five-match run-in rather than that of their rivals.

Looking back over Saturday’s win and three-point haul, the 31-year-old told East Fife TV: “It’s absolutely massive, with Peterhead dropping points, but I don’t think it’s about Peterhead – it’s about us.

“In the first half, I know it was 2-0 to them but I didn’t think there was too much in the game.

Michael McKenna in action for East Fife as they beat Edinburgh’s Spartans 4-2 at home on Saturday (Photo: Kenny Mackay)

“The second half was different class from the boys and I think we deserved to win and deserved the goals we scored.”

Austin credits the hosts’ half-time change in personnel for their turnaround in fortunes, with Kallum Higginbotham, Connor McManus and Reis Peggie taking over from Stewart Murdoch, Jess Norey and Liam Newton respectively.

“We brought on Higgy and Connor, replacing good players with good players, and that was the difference,” he said.

“They just changed our style a little bit and we made those couple of extra passes and we then we managed to get in behind them quite a lot and seemed to cause them a lot of problems. It was good to be a part of.”

Manager Dick Campbell after watching East Fife beat Edinburgh’s Spartans 4-2 at home on Saturday (Photo: Kenny Mackay)

The Hertfordshire-born former Falkirk and Kelty Hearts forward said it had been especially satisfying to give the club’s fans some to celebrate after a few fallow weeks, saying: “At the end, the crowd were absolutely loving it and it’s what they deserve after the last couple of weeks we’ve had.

“They deserved a little bit of a lift like that so I was glad we could give it to them.”

Austin says it’s now up to him and his teammates to maintain the post-half-time standards they reached against Spartans to try to prevent their title challenge faltering again as the business end of the season draws closer.

“There’s no point in turning up for 45 minutes and then going into next week and dropping to the levels that we’d been at for the past few weeks,” he said.

“That’s the standard we’ve set now, so if we can go on a run like that for the rest of the season, we’ll see where it takes us.

“There’s no point in performing like that for 45 minutes and then putting in a performance like we did in the first half against Edinburgh City the week before, so we’ve just got to keep standards high.”

Edinburgh-born McKenna, 34, was glad to get off the mark for his new club and says he’s hoping there’ll be more goals where Saturday’s came from, adding: “It’s always a good feeling getting a goal.

“Sometimes you can play well in a game and not win and it doesn’t really get noticed but a goal gives you a wee platform to go on and be more confident and hopefully, with momentum being a huge thing in football, I can go and get another goal.

“I’m pleased with how my attacking play’s going, but at this stage of the season it’s just about getting results.

“If you win 1-0 and play terribly, nobody’s going to care.”

Kick-off versus Forfar at Station Park this Saturday is at 3pm.