Match report: Peterhead 2-1 East Fife

East Fife's Jekyll and Hyde personality was again on display at Balmoor as they failed to live up on the promise of seven days previous.
East Fife's Chris Higgins takes a tumble. Pic by Kenny Mackay.East Fife's Chris Higgins takes a tumble. Pic by Kenny Mackay.
East Fife's Chris Higgins takes a tumble. Pic by Kenny Mackay.

Last weekend, against Airdrie at home, East Fife were at their very best and doing what they do well - mean at the back, creative in midfield and ruthless in attack.

The Diamonds couldn't deal with East Fife's ability to win the ball, break forward, spray passes out wide and then deliver telling crosses into the box.

But they showed very little of that on Saturday afternoon.

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Boss Darren Young admitted afterwards that he and his coaching staff were yelling at the players to get the ball wide and deliver more of the kind of crosses Airdrie struggled with.

Instead they watched as their side thumped too many long balls directly into the Peterhead box which Jason Brown and Gary McKenzie at the heart of the Blue Toon defence soaked up.

On one of the few occasions East Fife did keep the ball down and get in behind the Peterhead defence they scored.

Peterhead started the game well and took the lead when Lyall Cameron was the first to react to a loose ball in the edge of the box and sent his low drive beyond Brett Long.

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Jack Hamilton continues to impress for the Fifers and he was at the heart of the equaliser.

The striker managed to slip his marker and beat the offside trap to pick up a through ball.

Hamilton raced clear on goal but with Joshua Rae narrowing down his angle, the on-loan Livi man squared the ball along goal for Danny Denholm to convert.

Five minutes into the second half Peterhead's second goal arrived when Scott Brown was in the right place at the right time at the edge of the East Fife box.

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He had plenty of work to do but finished off a neat move forward by lashing a stunning volley well out of Long's reach.

With 25 minutes to go East Fife's chances were given a boost when Peterhed's Gary Fraser was shown a straight red card for an off the ball incident which home boss Jim McInally confirmed post match was for an elbow.

East Fife almost made their hosts pay for Fraser's lack of discipline straight away, Ross Davidson's curling shot clipping the outside of the post.

The visitors camped out inside the Peterhead half as the home side pulled everyone back to defend.

But too many passes and long balls forward were wasted.

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On one rare occasion when East Fife did get the ball out wide, Ryan Wallace's cross was met by the unmarked Hamilton but he couldn't beat Rae for a second time.

Boss Young said: "It’s disappointing from our point of view.

“For whatever reason we played into their hands by launching the ball when we were screaming to them from the sides to get it wide and try to get into two v one situations.

“The times we did do it we put in some good deliveries.

“But we didn’t take our chances when we got them and they did which gave them a platform and they got the three points."