East Fife pleased with first pre-season run out

An injury to Kyle Bell left a sour taste on the 1-0 win.

That was with the exception, though, of a serious looking injury to midfielder Kyle Bell who had to be stretchered off a few minutes before the half time break with a serious leg injury.

Bell contested a 50/50 ball in the middle of the park but came off worse.

A Lewis Hunter strike with a couple of minutes left on the clock handed East Fife the win in a game lacking in clear cut chances.

But with fitness the priority, boss Young was pleased with the run out his squad, which featured 10 trialists, the majority of them under 20s, got.

He said: "The injury to young Kyle is the only down point to it.

"We got the fitness that we wanted and for the guys to get 45 minutes, although one or two were mumping and moaning that they wanted a bit more.

"But it's the first game so we were happy to get that under our belt.

"We did fine, the first half was so/so and then in the second we made a few changes and looked sharper.

"It was a good goal from Lewis and we had another few opportunities to do a bit better in the final third.

"But that will come as the games come.

"It was positive as well to see a lot of the young boys come in and look assured."

On Saturday the Fifers welcome Dundee United to Bayview, and Young expects it to be another step forward in his season preparations.

He added: "Hopefully we'll have Anton Dowds, Chris Duggan, Scott Agnew and maybe Stewart Murdoch back for that game.

"But Kyle Bell is going to be out and Danny Denholm as well, that's why he got the full 90 minutes (against Albion Rovers."