Fifers aiming for top five

Ryan Wallace sets East Fife on the way to victory at Forfar on Saturday with the opening goal

Manager Darren Young’s squad has come through the punishing schedule of seven games in 14 days with little or no fresh injury worries and they want to finish the season with a flourish.

“I think we managed it well and we are in a good position going into the last two matches,” said the 42-year-old.

The Fifers scored an important away win on Saturday against managerless bottom club Forfar, and Young felt it should have been even more convincing.

“The main thing now, at the business end of the season, is getting three points on board,” he said.

“We are now joint third, with six points to play for. If we win the two games, we are in the top five.”

The squad will hopefully be a little more rested and up to maximum strength by the time Peterhead come visiting on Saturday.

The match has a noon kick-off to avoid clashing with the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Jim McInally’s side lost 3-0 at home last Saturday to Partick Thistle, but Young said, at this stage of the season, it doesn’t really matter if a side’s run of form is good, bad or indifferent.

“It’s just a case of getting points on the board,” he reiterated. “Peterhead will have ambitions to get to the top five, and we certainly do, so it will be a battle.”

With a visit to Airdrieonians concluding the league programme this coming Tuesday evening, Young said the quieter schedule would allow him extra time to prepare with his players and analyse a few details for the weekend.

“We’ve a few ideas on how we want to play. We are at home, which is good advantage for us,” he said.

“We are not really worried about anyone else's scores – there are that many permutations and that many things that could happen. We’ll just worry about three points, and it's in our hands.”

Young added that the Fifers would like to have collected more points during their gruelling fixture spell of late and he felt refereeing decisions had gone “massively” against them in their games with Cove Rangers and Partick Thistle, but they are in a fine position to kick on for the top five, which, he said, would be a great achievement.