East Fife are up for derby day

Darren Young and his assistant, Stephen Frail, give the Fifers instructions at the Falkirk Stadium. Pic by Kenny Mackay

Young is hopeful that competition for places in his squad can act as a catalyst for a positive performance in the SPFL Trust Trophy and that might then then have a knock-on effect in the league.

Despite leading Falkirk at the weekend, East Fife surrendered their one-goal advantage in the second half, with the Bairns hitting twice.

That game brought to an end a disappointing first quarter of season which sees East Fife prop up League One with just four points to their name, but they’ll reset for the next group of games but, before that, they can take their mind off their league woes with a trip to Stark’s Park.

And boss Young revealed that he will be able to call on at least four players who have missed out over recent weeks.

“Hopefully Kyle Connell will be back, Pat Slattery will be back, Ross Dunlop and Daniel Higgins from suspension,” said the Bayview manager.

"That should give us a few more bodies for the weekend.

"Raith have been up in the Championship for a couple of years now so we know it’ll be a hard derby game, but the players will be up for it and hopefully we can put in the same type of performance as we have over the past two weeks and get a few things going for us.

"Players are starting to come back now as well so that will provide some competition for places.”

Young bolstered his squad in midweek with the loan signing of David Devine from Motherwell.

The 20-year-old will provide further competition for places and is one Young has high hopes for.

"He’s a big, strong boy who was in on loan at Queen of the South," he said.

"He’ll be a good presence and ticked a lot of boxes for us.”

While the cup is the priority this weekend, Young knows what he wants to see from the next round of league fixtures when they resume.

"We’ll start the second quarter with a points target we want to hit but, right now, it’s about us catching Peterhead.

"That’s the first thing in my mind, getting the points to catch them and then looking to kick on and catch the other teams above them.”