East Fife ship five to Edinburgh City as League Two title tilt is deal blow

Dick Campbell’s side travelled to the capital as table-toppers but they collapsed against the Citizens, handing the advantage to Scottish League Two title rivals Peterhead in the process after they chalked up a 2-1 win at Stirling Albion.

The Fifers are now three points behind the Blue Toon – with both sides meeting at Balmoor on the penultimate matchday of the campaign with six games to go.

On Saturday, Andy Munro tripped Innes Lawson after just five minutes to hand the home side a spot kick and that kicked off a horror show.

Jason Jarvis’ well-taken penalty beat Allan Fleming and the man who won the penalty, Lawson, doubled the lead for City before the break when he fired home in the area.

After the break, Jarvis grabbed his second after 54 minutes when he caught everyone off guard with an unstoppable long-range effort. That took the wind out of East Fife’s sails after a decent start to the second half.

Straight from kick off, Malik Zaid’s mazy run caused havoc and Tiwi Daramola bunded home the fourth.

On the hour mark, Alan Trouten got a goal back for the visitors from the penalty spot but Zaid’s volley on 76 minutes restored Edinburgh’s four-goal lead.

In the final moments, Adam Laaref did grab another goal for East Fife but it was too little too late.

Speaking to East Fife TV, assistant manager Ian Campbell admitted feeling “disappointment would be an understatement” after such a shocking showing.

He said: “I think we got what we deserved. We were very poor. There are reasons for that and we need to sort it out.

"The penalty we give away early on is so poor. We come back in it but they score a second and we defended poorly.

"We gave away the softest goals you have ever seen defensively. We need to get our act together.

"It is heartbreaking, what we are serving up to fans right now, who have been magnificent.

"We have no-one else to blame but ourselves. It is just totally unacceptable.”