New boss Brown’s initial assessment is that East Fife need to ‘get better’

EAST FIFE boss Billy Brown confirmed yesterday he is yet to decide who his assistant will be at the Fife club, although he won’t be rushed into anything on that front, writes Craig Smith.

Brown only took charge of his f irst game on Saturday, a 1-0 loss at home to Alloa, and the experienced manager is taking the time to properly find his feet at Bayview before appointing a number two.

The 61-year-old is hoping to make his own mark on the team he inherited after Gordon Durie’s resignation earlier this month, and admits there is a great deal of work to do after seeing his new side lose at the weekend.

“I’m just weighing things up at East Fife and I’ve only been there a week, so I’ve got to assess everything and see where we are,” he told Courier Sport.

“East Fife have always been known as a good club and what the fans are going to get is my best – that’s all I can give them.

“I don’t think it helped that we only had 12 fit senior outfield players, but I suppose that happens and you can’t do anything about injuries.

“I thought in the first half Alloa could have been four or five goals up and we were pretty poor to be honest, but we changed one or two things and said a few things at half-time and we did OK.

“Doing OK is not good enough, but it was certainly an improvement in the second half and we showed a lot more desire and a lot more will in the second half.”

As much as Brown was impressed with Alloa, he will be working this week towards masterminding a victory away to Albion Rovers on Saturday.

“We should be looking to claw back these teams, but we have to ask ourselves why we’re in this position,” he said.

“Everybody has to start getting a reality check and realise the team has got to get better.”