Young welcomes increased options

East Fife manager Darren Young has a selection problem of the good variety for the visit of Airdrie to Bayview.

Young explained: “We have the four loan boys – Mark Hurst, Greg Hurst, Jordan Piggott and Nathan Flanagan – available again after not being allowed to play in the Scottish Cup at Clyde last Saturday.

“Our injuries are clearing up, with only Scott Linton and Pat Slattery out, so we are in a much better place.

“We will have four players unhappy tomorrow as they are not involved, and that is the first time in a long time.”

Young believes his team will have to be at their best to beat the Diamonds.

He explained: “We will need to be strong as Airdrie will be going all out to beat us for a couple of reasons.

“The first reason is that they will want to bounce back from losing to Cove Rangers in the cup last weekend.

“Also, we won 1-0 at the Excelsior earlier this season in what was a really even game. They will use that defeat as another reason to win this game.”

The Fifers go into the game having won in the cup themselves. However, Young is looking for improvement.

He said: “It was a win but our performance was not great. Clyde made a good number of chances – too many for my liking.

“However, we will take the win and move to the next round as that is what cup football is about.”

Picture: SNS. Selection options are increasing for Darren Young.