East Fife grow in confidence ahead of survival run-in

Now manager Stevie Crawford is urging them to build on positive recent momentum this weekend when Queen’s Park arrive in Methil.

The manager believes his squad is growing in both confidence and strength at a crucial point in the season.

"We can only affect what’s going to happen going forward and we now have Danny Swanson and Stewart Murdoch coming back,” Crawford said.

"Dan Higgins never got stripped at the weekend and Kieran Millar got another 90 minutes under his belt.

"It’s pleasing for me that I’m starting to see players coming back with over quarter of a season still to go.

"We’ll need everybody.”

Given the side’s performances over the past couple of weekends, recording back-to-back draws with Clyde and Peterhead, there was hope rather than expectation that they could return to Bayview with all three points from Alloa on Saturday.

But they did just that, winning 3-1.

Crawford was delighted with his players and also hailed the influence of the large travelling support, saying they shouldn’t underestimate the impact their backing had.

"I thought the fans were brilliant at the weekend, turning out in the numbers they did and getting behind the boys,” said the manager.

"Even when we went 1-0 down, I was listening to Aaron Steele’s interview after the game and he felt the fans were helping the team through.

"We’re human beings, there will be a nervousness when we then go 2-1 up and the fans can play their part.

"I’m really glad the players went over at the end because that victory has been a long time coming.

"It was wall deserved and I appreciate the way fans stuck with the team because it allows them to play with a confidence as well.”

East Fife will now look to build on that win this weekend when Queen’s Park arrive in Methil.

Crawford said: "They’ve drawn five out of their last six, I think it is, but are still in fourth place. Their objective will be to make sure they finish in the play-offs.

"But I’m only looking at us having closed the gap on Peterhead and Alloa on Saturday and taking the positives from that.”