Young urges troops to forget midweek defeat

East Fife manager Darren Young will need to lift his side for the visit of Stranraer after a 2-0 defeat from Falkirk on Tuesday night severely hampered their chances of putting in a League One title challenge.

Young’s side are now seven points behind leaders Raith Rovers, however the Locality Hub Bayview boss reckons that using the prospect of taking a step closer to the promotion play-offs will have his team ready for the Stair Park men.

Young said: “We did very well in the first half and in the early part of the second at Falkirk. We made changes to go on and win the game in the last half hour however things did not work out that way.

“Falkirk had been the better team but we had limited them to very few chances so it was a frustrating outcome.”

“The dressing room was very flat afterwards and the players were very quiet. However, we have still plenty to play for and plenty to be positive about so we will be ready for Stranraer.”

Young added: “We are in the top half of the table and in with a shout of a playoff place so we will look to put the disappointment from Tuesday behind us and move on quickly.”

“It will not be easy as Stranraer have been a thorn in our side at home in the past couple of seasons. We have struggled to put games against them to bed and drawn games that we should have won.”

Young does not reckon that the Blues lowly league position should be used as a guide to how strong a side they are as he explained: “They are at the bottom of the table but they have not lost in their last six games which shows the changes their manager Stephen Farrell made in January have worked to an extent. They have not fully worked as they have drawn them all but they have come from behind to draw in their last three outings which shows that they have resilience.”

“We will have to overcome that and get the three points.”

The injured Kyle Bell is the only absentee for the Methil men.

Darren Young feels his team were unlucky to lose to Falkirk.