The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Young targets ‘wee run’ as buoyant Fife edge into top four
EAST FIFE 1 PETERHEAD 0
East Fife boss Darren Young is hoping his side’s back-to-back home wins are the early stages of a long winning streak.
Young’s men managed to grind out a 1-0 win in tough conditions at Bayview on Saturday as Storm Dennis made its presence felt in Methil.
In the end a solitary Anton Dowds strike was all that separated the sides.
Peterhead will feel they did enough to take something from the game but, in the end, it was the Fifers who built on a 4-2 win over Dumbarton in their last game.
It means they go into tomorrow night’s meeting with Falkirk inside the top four and aiming to close out a place in the promotion play-offs.
Boss Young said: “It’s a big week for us and we’ll maybe look to freshen things up for Tuesday.
“We have a game next Saturday as well but we’re in a great position.
“First and foremost we wanted to make sure we got the three points against Peterhead which we did.
“I’m delighted with the performance and hopefully we can go on a wee run now.
“It was a great bit of play for the goal. Brilliant ball through from Scott Agnew to Anton Dowds then a great finish.
“I’m delighted for him to get his goal because he’s been working so hard for the last three or four games and it hasn’t fallen for him.
“Overall it was a great performance and good to get the clean sheet.
“We had some brilliant clearances and put our bodies on the line.
“We limited them to few chances and that’s down to the guys leading from the front with Anton and Ryan Wallace working so hard to close down the full backs and the centre halves.”
It was a game short on clear cut chances but, crucially, East Fife took theirs when it came along and it gave them something to defend.
Scott Agnew and Jack Leitch had early chances for their sides before Agnew turned creator for Anton Dowds to open the scoring.
Peterhead dusted themselves down and played some decent stuff for the rest of the first half.
They had chances to pull level, the best falling to Gary Fraser and Derek Lyle, but neither could find a way past Fife keeper Brett Long.
East Fife were a lot better after the break as they looked to shake off their visitors.
Danny Denholm should have put the Methil men two goals up when he was played in by Ryan Wallace only to fire wide.
Fleming was then at his very best in the closing stages when he tipped Agnew’s free-kick over the bar.
Blue Toon boss Jim Mcinally said: “I thought that we were a bit unfortunate to be one down. In the second half though we didn’t do enough to get anything out of the game.”