Reaction

East Fife came to the Indodrill Stadium on the back of a ten game unbeaten run in the league last night, now managed by ex Alloa Athletic manager Barry Smith.

The visitors started the game on the front foot and took the game to “The Wasps”, however Greig Spence scored his 2oth goal of the season after eleven minutes and Jim Goodwin’s team were on top thereafter. Dylan Mackin was denied by a last ditch tackle before Kevin Cawley scored a special solo goal, finished with a rasping low drive into the bottom corner of the net.

In the second half East Fife goalkeeper Ryan Goodfellow did well saving from Jordan Kirkpatrick and Scott Taggart before substitute Jamie Longworth headed home
number three.

jim goodwin after alloa ended east fife’s 10 game unbeaten run

Really pleased obviously, I’m delighted to get three wins in a row, it’s been a long time since we had done that, we have to go back to the start of the season.  You can see the boys are playing with a lot of confidence, I thought there were some fantastic passages of play, we weathered the storm early doors, I thought East Fife started the better team in the first ten minutes, but after that little spell they had, I thought we dominated the game for long periods. Delighted with the three goals, the quality of all three goals was excellent – the build up to the first one, the second one when Jordan and Dylan have a little one two in the middle of the park, Kevin makes a great forward run and strike and the third one, I was delighted for Jamie because he has been a bit frustrated by the lack of game time but he comes on for the last half an hour and makes an impact and that’s what we want from the substitutes and that’s what we want from the squad. I’m a very lucky manager to have the strength in depth I have and to be able to call on guys like that to come on and make the kind of impact that he did.

I hate singling out players but I thought my two centre backs were outstanding again , along with Calum Waters & Scott Taggart, the boys in the attacking areas get a lot of credit and it will be their pictures which always are seen in the papers, but the job that the boys at the back do is absolutely immense, they are extremely brave they defend their box well, they are so desperate to keep a clean sheet they are even putting their bodies on the line at 3-0, when other teams might switch off, our keeper makes a fantastic save with three minutes to go and he is another player who deserves special mention because he couldn’t get into the team for love or money because Neil Parry was in such good form, Neil gets injured and I’m in the fortune position that I can call on my second choice keeper who would probably be a number one at any other club.

We are in a great position just now I don’t want to get to carried away, we need to try and keep our feet on the ground, we haven’t achieved anything yet but it is great to be able to apply pressure on Livingston, the kind of pressure I spoke about at the beginning of the week and it takes us into Saturday’s game with a lot confidence.

Craig McDowall has went into the team and been fantastic that’s a couple of clean sheets he has had as well, that’s the fortunate position I am in and it certainly gives us something to think about, he’s in just now and he will keep the jersey and will play again on Saturday.

Every game is just as important as the last and we try not to get too carried away and try and take each game as it comes. Let’s get the tactics right for Saturday, the pitch is not ideal I think by all accounts it is pretty boggy so that is something we will need to take into consideration, it won’t allow us to play the kind of football we enjoy, we will adapt and Brechin City will be another very tough opponent, they have had a great result tonight defeating Queen’s Park 3-1, so we are well aware of how difficult that task will be as well, but we are looking forward to it the boys are confident and in a great frame of mind prior to the game.