The East Fife Thread

[Mon_The_Fife]

Agnew is probably our most creative player so if he’s off the boil we don’t really have anyone else to play in that role. Another creative midfielder would help us. Saying that, if we concede goals like we did vs Clyde then it doesn’t really matter who we have creating chances.

[Bayviewboy]

Think we were all confused by that decision.

Don’t disagree also about Agnew and Wallace . The former has been our best player these past few years- but he is an outstanding attacking midfielder and a poor defensive midfielder- lets get a strong midfielder in and put Aggie on the offensive rather than defensive- do this and we will get more goals from all the front 3 and concede less also. Seems obvious- with the caveat we need to find that loan signing in midfield!( the difficult part!)

I think we need a couple of players in to give options and put players under pressure for the shirt. However I would like to see the following team formation on Sat

Long
Watson. Dunlop. Higgins. Slattery
Murdoch. Davidson
Dunsmore. Wallace. Agnew
Dowds

With Murdo and Davo sitting in front of the back 4 it allows the striker and three behind him to go and attack. When our opponents have the ball we essentially become a 4-5-1.
Wallace has already been doing lots of work outside the box and dropping deep to create space so maybe this role will suit him better and allow us to get players up to help Anton quicker, knowing that we will have six behind should our tack break down. Worth a try !

[Big Fifer]

13 hours ago, Bayviewboy said:

 

I think we need a couple of players in to give options and put players under pressure for the shirt. However I would like to see the following team formation on Sat

Long
Watson. Dunlop. Higgins. Slattery
Murdoch. Davidson
Dunsmore. Wallace. Agnew
Dowds

With Murdo and Davo sitting in front of the back 4 it allows the striker and three behind him to go and attack. When our opponents have the ball we essentially become a 4-5-1.
Wallace has already been doing lots of work outside the box and dropping deep to create space so maybe this role will suit him better and allow us to get players up to help Anton quicker, knowing that we will have six behind should our tack break down. Worth a try !

 

I dont mind this but I'm not sure how Agnew would feel about being pushed out wide. Regardless, we need to stop conceding so easily and I think Murdoch and Davidson in the middle is probably a decent attempt at doing that. 

[Wee Sandy]

As this season progresses it is starting to look a bit like last season, running out of gas when it's most needed, strange to see it happen again.

Thought you guys would have kept the momentum up..................." it's a funny old game, Saint!! "

[Big Fifer]

1 hour ago, Wee Sandy said:

As this season progresses it is starting to look a bit like last season, running out of gas when it's most needed, strange to see it happen again.

Thought you guys would have kept the momentum up..................." it's a funny old game, Saint!! "

I think that's the most frustrating thing. Most reasonable minded fans would say 4th is a good place to be, but it's the fact we seem capable of seeing off teams with ease in the first third of the season and look like genuine contenders to all of a sudden not knowing our arse from our elbow defensively and struggling to score at all, that's the most annoying part. It was argued that last seasons fall away was us reverting to the mean, but the exact same thing has happened this season. Very, very strange. 

[Its not only a game]

 

I think we need a couple of players in to give options and put players under pressure for the shirt. However I would like to see the following team formation on Sat

 

Long

Watson. Dunlop. Higgins. Slattery

Murdoch. Davidson

Dunsmore. Wallace. Agnew

Dowds

 

With Murdo and Davo sitting in front of the back 4 it allows the striker and three behind him to go and attack. When our opponents have the ball we essentially become a 4-5-1.

Wallace has already been doing lots of work outside the box and dropping deep to create space so maybe this role will suit him better and allow us to get players up to help Anton quicker, knowing that we will have six behind should our tack break down. Worth a try !

Watched the excellent EF highlights package of the game it reconfirmed what i thought at the game;

 

1) How poor the two mistakes from our CB’s were for the two goals-really frustrating as otherwise I thought they played well against the best forward in the league by far!

 

2) How poor those two referee decisions were to give fouls against Higgins and Dunsmuir. The referee has dropped from Premiership to league 1 not because he has performed well. Just wished he and others show a bit more humility and less arrogance on the field of play.Tbf Clyde also got a number of poor decisions.

 

3)That the goal was clearly never offside. Both linesman particularly the stand side one really should go on a fitness regime.

 

All said and done we deserved a draw- but even if we got that- still a poor start to the 3rd quarter.

 

Re team above not sure about the formation but definitely our strongest 11.

 

 

 

 

 

[Callum RRFC]

Hello, I’m Callum a Raith fan crossing the divide for some opinions... I’m a Stirling uni student writing an article about the uni team and the success of graduates in recent years. With Lewis Hunter plying for you guys now, I was wondering if anyone could quickly tell me how he’s done this season and settled in the EF team. Can only briefly remember seeing him play against us this season so any advice would be appreciated, cheers  

[Big Fifer]

1 minute ago, Callum RRFC said:

Hello, I’m Callum a Raith fan crossing the divide for some opinions... I’m a Stirling uni student writing an article about the uni team and the success of graduates in recent years. With Lewis Hunter plying for you guys now, I was wondering if anyone could quickly tell me how he’s done this season and settled in the EF team. Can only briefly remember seeing him play against us this season so any advice would be appreciated, cheers  

He's only been in and out of the team a few times, mostly on the bench, looked OK mostly but in the derby vs Raith he was in a midfield 2 with Agnew and we were absolutely run over for the game and he was hooked about ten minutes into the second half. There might be a player there, so far I'm not sure we've seen it too much. 

[sirscottyoung]

He's only been in and out of the team a few times, mostly on the bench, looked OK mostly but in the derby vs Raith he was in a midfield 2 with Agnew and we were absolutely run over for the game and he was hooked about ten minutes into the second half. There might be a player there, so far I'm not sure we've seen it too much. 

He was absolutely unreal against Falkirk in the middle of a midfield 5

[Cambuslang Fifer]

1 hour ago, Callum RRFC said:

Hello, I’m Callum a Raith fan crossing the divide for some opinions... I’m a Stirling uni student writing an article about the uni team and the success of graduates in recent years. With Lewis Hunter plying for you guys now, I was wondering if anyone could quickly tell me how he’s done this season and settled in the EF team. Can only briefly remember seeing him play against us this season so any advice would be appreciated, cheers  

the lads first full season in the senior game, I was expecting similar to the another boy ending up at Montrose and the ability to stake a case for the team. yes there's time where he has played well the other times he's been in and out the team at the moment struggling to find some sort of form and in danger of finishing below fifth place!

but for Lewis this is a learning curve there's players who have stepped up than others like Anton, Fash etc and have done rather well than others and that's football hopefully we see more of Lewis...

[effc loyal]

Really need a signing or 2

[DDLL]

no game on the 8th February with Falkirk winning tonight

[sirscottyoung]

no game on the 8th February with Falkirk winning tonight

f**k sakes means the shops are calling my name [emoji848][emoji849]

[East Fife is best]

This could be a major problem in our quest for play offs if we end up going on a run of results before hand

[TxRover]

On 28/01/2020 at 04:51, Big Fifer said:

I think that's the most frustrating thing. Most reasonable minded fans would say 4th is a good place to be, but it's the fact we seem capable of seeing off teams with ease in the first third of the season and look like genuine contenders to all of a sudden not knowing our arse from our elbow defensively and struggling to score at all, that's the most annoying part. It was argued that last seasons fall away was us reverting to the mean, but the exact same thing has happened this season. Very, very strange. 

For a working theory, you have a couple of “easy” things to blame. First, there is the theory that it’s tougher to keep beating a team the more you play them. Perhaps the setup that DY likes works the best for the first visit or two versus a team in a season. Second might be a failure of the coaching staff at adapting to the changes that teams make for the second, third and/or fourth game versus EF. That one becomes more reasonable if DY successfully makes adjustments for the next visit after an unsuccessful one...that would be characterized by a weak second or third quarter. Third is the part-time team curse, and fourth would be the weather and schedule...except the pitch issues have been somewhat neutralized over the League with the plastic fields, but the inherent jumbling of the schedule and midweek games that come with the various Cups and such still remains.

I’m also perplexed by the fall off at EF, it really doesn’t seem to make sense, so you end up looking for the key.

[Cosmic Joe]

On 22/01/2020 at 19:21, archibald8 said:

Hi all. I've found a bunch of old programmes and I'm looking to sell them all in one go, rather than individually on ebay. 3 photos attached. 

There's 19 East Fife programmes ranging from the 1950s to 1980s in one photo. 

50 programmes from around 1994 to 2009. This includes some East Fife away games, including the last ever game at Dumbarton's old Boghead ground. Also, away games at Cowdenbeath, Montrose, Hamilton, Albion Rovers, Brechin, Stirling Albion, Alloa, and Forfar.

Also found 5 Scotland v England programmes from 1958, 1960, 1964 1970, and 1972. 

I would take £40 for the lot, if anyone is interested. Will even throw in delivery if you're in the local area. 

What are the dates of the Dunfermline Athletic and Raith away programmes please? Also the dates and opponents of the two fanfolded homes?

[Big Fifer]

2 hours ago, TxRover said:

For a working theory, you have a couple of “easy” things to blame. First, there is the theory that it’s tougher to keep beating a team the more you play them. Perhaps the setup that DY likes works the best for the first visit or two versus a team in a season. Second might be a failure of the coaching staff at adapting to the changes that teams make for the second, third and/or fourth game versus EF. That one becomes more reasonable if DY successfully makes adjustments for the next visit after an unsuccessful one...that would be characterized by a weak second or third quarter. Third is the part-time team curse, and fourth would be the weather and schedule...except the pitch issues have been somewhat neutralized over the League with the plastic fields, but the inherent jumbling of the schedule and midweek games that come with the various Cups and such still remains.

I’m also perplexed by the fall off at EF, it really doesn’t seem to make sense, so you end up looking for the key.

Point 1 - I'm not sure, if every team had to go for a full tactical revamp every time they beat someone, I think we'd see a lot more mental results in every league

Point 2 - Whilst this could be something, I would find it strange if true, because I know that DY and TM are pretty meticulous in their preparation for every game, both when it comes to our players preparation and assessing the opponents. I think this is something that annoys some of the guys more closely involved at the club when folks like myself have a moan, because they know the amount of work that goes in. Maybe teams are making unpredictable changes when they play us but I'm not so sure.

Point 3/4 - I've mentioned above about this mirroring last season in terms of the fall away, we did the same thing two years previously winning just one of our last 8 to drop out of the playoffs. Not so much the year in the middle, we were in the playoffs for the opening quarter before sitting mid-table virtually throughout. Anyway, every part-time team will have peaks and troughs, and the fixture rescheduling shouldn't affect us as much as it did last year. We're making the same sort of silly defensive errors for a lot of the goals and we're now running with a really small squad given now Bell's still out and Church and Boyd away, so there's not that much scope to change it personnel wise. 

I think a lot of my worry here also stems from the fact that, whilst I have reservations defensively, I think we actually do have a pretty good squad here and the management team deserve huge credit for building it, but if we don't actually achieve anything after another season here I suspect that there might be clubs after one or two of our better players, I think only 4 of our squad are tied down. 

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

Point 1 - I'm not sure, if every team had to go for a full tactical revamp every time they beat someone, I think we'd see a lot more mental results in every league

Point 2 - Whilst this could be something, I would find it strange if true, because I know that DY and TM are pretty meticulous in their preparation for every game, both when it comes to our players preparation and assessing the opponents. I think this is something that annoys some of the guys more closely involved at the club when folks like myself have a moan, because they know the amount of work that goes in. Maybe teams are making unpredictable changes when they play us but I'm not so sure.

Point 3/4 - I've mentioned above about this mirroring last season in terms of the fall away, we did the same thing two years previously winning just one of our last 8 to drop out of the playoffs. Not so much the year in the middle, we were in the playoffs for the opening quarter before sitting mid-table virtually throughout. Anyway, every part-time team will have peaks and troughs, and the fixture rescheduling shouldn't affect us as much as it did last year. We're making the same sort of silly defensive errors for a lot of the goals and we're now running with a really small squad given now Bell's still out and Church and Boyd away, so there's not that much scope to change it personnel wise. 

I think a lot of my worry here also stems from the fact that, whilst I have reservations defensively, I think we actually do have a pretty good squad here and the management team deserve huge credit for building it, but if we don't actually achieve anything after another season here I suspect that there might be clubs after one or two of our better players, I think only 4 of our squad are tied down. 

Fair points. On #1, it’s not so much a full adjustment as tailoring the scheme to consider the last matches mismatches. The first game of a season almost always produces a “surprise” for some sort. One that is reacted to by the second game, etc. Combined with #2, its incumbent on the Staff to continuously tinker with the engine and chassis without rendering the beast uncontrollable.

I didn’t realize how significant a hit you had taken with those three gone, that’s not a small loss. This is where having young players can payoff, or cripple. It’s also where the lower budget teams tend to take it in the rear as the more affluent spread around some dosh and snap up the better players.

How many on the squad now?

[Its not only a game]

Point 1 - I'm not sure, if every team had to go for a full tactical revamp every time they beat someone, I think we'd see a lot more mental results in every league

Point 2 - Whilst this could be something, I would find it strange if true, because I know that DY and TM are pretty meticulous in their preparation for every game, both when it comes to our players preparation and assessing the opponents. I think this is something that annoys some of the guys more closely involved at the club when folks like myself have a moan, because they know the amount of work that goes in. Maybe teams are making unpredictable changes when they play us but I'm not so sure.

Point 3/4 - I've mentioned above about this mirroring last season in terms of the fall away, we did the same thing two years previously winning just one of our last 8 to drop out of the playoffs. Not so much the year in the middle, we were in the playoffs for the opening quarter before sitting mid-table virtually throughout. Anyway, every part-time team will have peaks and troughs, and the fixture rescheduling shouldn't affect us as much as it did last year. We're making the same sort of silly defensive errors for a lot of the goals and we're now running with a really small squad given now Bell's still out and Church and Boyd away, so there's not that much scope to change it personnel wise. 

I think a lot of my worry here also stems from the fact that, whilst I have reservations defensively, I think we actually do have a pretty good squad here and the management team deserve huge credit for building it, but if we don't actually achieve anything after another season here I suspect that there might be clubs after one or two of our better players, I think only 4 of our squad are tied down. 

Think it no more than our best 11 is as good as any other best 11 in the league. When injuries happen- or Players play with injury - or like last year when we go on excellent cup runs-we meet problems as we all know any team can beat any team in this league particularly if your best players are missing- carrying injury or loss of form- our squad does not have the depth in quality as others( no criticism just a consequence of resources).

 

But we need to stand back and appreciate we have achieved a lot in the past few years- when we get beat by Raith everyone( including me) get depressed but we were never close to them for years - now we expect to beat them....

 

Our nearest comparison should be Montrose- who I always get the impression are good at finding loanees that can make a difference on the field of play( may be wrong)

 

Far from being all doom and gloom- rather we have a fine team and want them to play to their full potential ...

[Wee Norrie]

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

Point 1 - I'm not sure, if every team had to go for a full tactical revamp every time they beat someone, I think we'd see a lot more mental results in every league

Point 2 - Whilst this could be something, I would find it strange if true, because I know that DY and TM are pretty meticulous in their preparation for every game, both when it comes to our players preparation and assessing the opponents. I think this is something that annoys some of the guys more closely involved at the club when folks like myself have a moan, because they know the amount of work that goes in. Maybe teams are making unpredictable changes when they play us but I'm not so sure.

Point 3/4 - I've mentioned above about this mirroring last season in terms of the fall away, we did the same thing two years previously winning just one of our last 8 to drop out of the playoffs. Not so much the year in the middle, we were in the playoffs for the opening quarter before sitting mid-table virtually throughout. Anyway, every part-time team will have peaks and troughs, and the fixture rescheduling shouldn't affect us as much as it did last year. We're making the same sort of silly defensive errors for a lot of the goals and we're now running with a really small squad given now Bell's still out and Church and Boyd away, so there's not that much scope to change it personnel wise. 

I think a lot of my worry here also stems from the fact that, whilst I have reservations defensively, I think we actually do have a pretty good squad here and the management team deserve huge credit for building it, but if we don't actually achieve anything after another season here I suspect that there might be clubs after one or two of our better players, I think only 4 of our squad are tied down. 

From the outside looking in Big Fifer, I'm not sure it's the defense that you should have reservations about.  Goals scored against EF is the exact same as the top club Raith,  but the goals scored for EF is 9 less than Raith.  That's why they're currently top of the league.  Is it bad finishing or poor supply from the midfield maybe?