East Fife 1-1 Stranraer

East Fife kept pace with the top four but will consider this an opportunity missed.
Chris Duggan handed East Fife a first half lead, but they were pegged back by the visitors. Picture by George McLuskie.Chris Duggan handed East Fife a first half lead, but they were pegged back by the visitors. Picture by George McLuskie.
Chris Duggan handed East Fife a first half lead, but they were pegged back by the visitors. Picture by George McLuskie.

In truth it wasn't an afternoon to remember for the home side who would have fancied their chances pre-match - but at the same time there's no doubt this was a vast improvement on last week's 2-1 defeat to Queen's Park.

It's also only right that credit is given to the opposition who were more than a match for the Methil men from the first whistle.

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It may be a cliche, but if ever a draw was a fair result this was it.

Stranraer started the game well and Ryan Wallace tested Mark Hurst on the quarter of an hour mark.

Some early pressure from the Blues eventually crumbled and East Fife managed to get their noses in front.

A now almost trademark killer pass from Aaron Dunsmore inside the Stranraer half found Chris Duggan near the edge of the box.

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With his back to goal Duggan still had plenty of work left to do but managed to turn superbly and lash his drive beyond Cammy Belford.

The goal should have been the catalyst for East Fife to kick on and wrap up the win but they instead found themselves misfiring in front of goal.

Kevin Smith had a couple of chances, Mark Lamont was unlucky and Jonathan Page was also denied.

Typically the chances would come back and haunt the side with former Fifer Ryan Wallace doing the damage from 18 yards.

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It was a goal the Blues deserved on the balance of play and injected a bit more impetus into their performance.

The Fifers had 'keeper Mark Hurst to thank late on when he pulled off a remarkable save to tip Paul Woods' curling effort round the post.

With their backs to the wall in the closing stages the Fifers managed to grind out the win against a Stranraer side which had Liam Dick sent off for two bookings.

Home boss Darren Young said: “These are the games you should be winning and we should be taking our chances.

“At the end they could have won it and we could have won it but from our point of view we should have had the game put out of sight.”