The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Young hails ‘brilliant’ Fifers after derby joy
LEAGUE ONE: East Fife fight back to put table-toppers Raith to the sword
EAST FIFE 4 RAITH ROVERS 2
East Fife boss Darren Young said kingdom rivals Raith were lucky to escape Bayview having conceded just the four goals.
The Methil men dominated the League One league leaders and the four goals scored didn’t flatter them.
Raith failed to build on an early opening goal and allowed their hosts to take charge.
Young said: “We were absolutely brilliant.
“We were a bit sticky for the first five or 10 minutes and I don’t think the wind helped with that, but once we got the ball down and started passing it from the back it was night and day.
“We lost a poor goal and Ross Dunlop has held his hands up, but for me it’s all about the reaction of his team-mates to dig him out of a hole.
“We go on to score four goals and are disappointed not to have made it five or six. We had another couple of gilt-edge chances but overall we were outstanding.
“Last week we spoke about maintaining our standards, but we bettered them and moved up.”
Raith started much better than their hosts and took the lead after 10 minutes when Ross Dunlop’s pass back was too short and picked up by Lewis Allan who rounded Jordan Hart and netted.
It was sloppy from the home side but proved to be the catalyst for a much improved performance.
Ryan Wallace again put in a terrific shift for Young’s side and it was his hard work inside the box which allowed him to create an opening for Anton Dowds who he netted from close range.
East Fife could have been home and hosed by the break had Aaron Dunsmore and Wallace been a little bit luckier in front of goal.
They were well worth the game’s third goal when it arrived, Chris Higgins rifling through a sea of legs following Scott Agnew’s corner.
Agnew’s deliveries were causing all sorts of problems for a Raith defence which struggled to clear its lines.
It was from his free-kick that East Fife added number three, Wallace racing clear of his marker to meet the set-piece and beat David McGurn.
The Methil men had a two-goal advantage and were well worthy of it, but the game became a bit nervier than it should have been for them when Jamie Gullan created space inside the home box and curled his strike beyond Hart.
The goal gave the visiting support some hope, but that was swiftly extinguished by the hosts.
On a slick move up the park, the Fifers simply knocked the ball around the St ark’ s Park men and worked it to Ag new.
The midfielder had plenty to do but finished in style.
Results elsewhere left Raith still top of the pile, but undefeated East Fife had put down their own title marker.
Visiting boss John McGlynn said: “We wanted to be two or three goals up at half-time after getting that early goal.
“But we didn’t bombard their goal or make their keeper make saves.
“We allowed them to come back into the game. Then we haven’t defended set-plays in the second half.”