East Fife should relish their tough Falkirk test

Martin Rennie has added a few fresh faces, former Scotland international Leigh Griffiths amongst them.

But far from being daunted, the Bayview manager says his side should instead relish the opportunity to test themselves against players of that calibre.

The Bairns, who lost 2-0 at Cove on Saturday, were due to face Peterhead on Tuesday night.

They’ll then turn their attention to an East Fife side growing in confidence, having stretched their unbeaten record to four games thanks to Saturday’s 1-1 home draw with Queen’s Park.

The Fifers are continuing to scrap against the drop, and Crawford wants them to maintain that mentality when they visit the Falkirk Stadium.

“I was watching Falkirk’s highlights from the Cove Rangers game, which leads into a couple of interviews,” said the Fife boss.

"You can see straight away that Martin isn’t happy with the performance because he’s seen progression over the past couple of games.

"We have to be careful we don’t fall into that category as well.

"It then went into an interview with Paul Watson, who I worked with at Dunfermline, and you can see the disappointment in him after the game.

"They play Peterhead on Tuesday night so we won’t get the immediate impact of them looking to bounce back.

"They’ve added Paul Watson, they’ve added the boy Kabia on-loan from Livingston, Jacobs, who is a holding midfielder, and Leigh Griffiths.

"But the thing I like from that is, it’s a challenge to our players.

"If I was going into that game as a player I’d want to go and show what I can do.

"Going back to the 2-0 game against them, if we match that level of performance then we’ll give ourselves a chance of getting a positive result.”

Despite still being at the foot of League One, there’s a growing positivity around Bayview. "I’ve said to the players that it’s about having the belief,” added Crawford.

"Over the past few weeks we’ve consistently created chances, we’ve won a game and had two clean sheets.

"It’s continuing to have faith in yourself.”