East Fife 2 - 1 Stenhousemuir
Crawford follows Cowdenbeath's lead
| Team Stat Comparison | ||
| East Fife | Stenhousemuir | |
| Matches Played | 15 | 15 |
| Table Position | 8 | 7 |
| Points | 17 | 17 |
| Goal Difference | -2 | 1 |
| Goals for * | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| Goals against * | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Last 5 | W-L-L-L-W | D-W-L-W-L |
| Last 5 home | L-L-W-L-W | D-L-L-L-W |
| Last 5 away | W-L-L-D-L | W-W-L-L-L |
| * Goals per match - home matches for home club and away matches for away club | ||
| · Club Stats: East Fife | Stenhousemuir | ||
| Last Five Matches in Competition | |
| East Fife | Stenhousemuir |
| A: Clyde 1-3 | H: Brechin City 1-1 |
| H: Stirling Albion 1-2 | A: Alloa Athletic 1-4 |
| H: Peterhead 1-2 | H: Dumbarton 0-3 |
| A: Cowdenbeath 2-1 | A: Arbroath 0-3 |
| H: Stenhousemuir 2-1 | A: East Fife 2-1 |
| · Club Results: East Fife | Stenhousemuir | |
| Next Five Matches in Competition | |||
| East Fife | Stenhousemuir | ||
| 5/12 | H: Alloa Athletic | 5/12 | A: Cowdenbeath |
| 12/12 | A: Dumbarton | 12/12 | H: Clyde |
| 19/12 | H: Brechin City | 19/12 | A: Stirling Albion |
| 26/12 | A: Arbroath | 26/12 | H: Peterhead |
| 2/1 | A: Peterhead | 2/1 | A: Dumbarton |
| · Club Fixtures: East Fife | Stenhousemuir | |||
Updated: October 23, 2009, 12:52 PM UK
East Fife should learn from the example of rivals Cowdenbeath as they look to push up the league starting against Stenhousemuir, according to their manager.Stevie Crawford believes that the Blue Brazil are proof of what can happen if a team manages to string a few results together in a very tight Second Division.
He said: "Cowdenbeath have shown what can happen if you put together a bit of form in this league and looking back at that game against them I don't really think there was much in it.
"The boys will see Cowdenbeath climbing up the league and feel that if they can do it then there's no reason why we can't''
Crawford's men return to New Bayview to face struggling Stenhousemuir with the boss admitting that it is vital the Fifers start to put some daylight between themselves and the teams near the bottom.
He added: "It's a massive game for us because we don't want to be looking over our shoulder at the teams behind us.''
The visit of Stenhousemuir is likely to come to quickly for Bob Campbell who has a stomach injury while Scott Thomson is expected to be out for a month following surgery on his Achilles problem.
Ahead of the clash, Stenhousemuir manager John Coughlin has laid down a challenge to his strikers to score more goals - or face being replaced by someone else when the transfer window opens in January.
The Ochilview side travel to East Fife having lost four league matches in a row after going unbeaten through their first half dozen games.
Coughlin said: "When we were going through a decent spell at the start of the season we weren't conceding very many goals. Now we are in a situation where we are giving away soft goals every week. That is something we have to address, but our priority is to get the strikers to score more often.
"We have tried various combinations up front but it doesn't matter what we go with, they are not firing on any cylinders at the moment. We even threw some of the first team strikers into Monday's reserve match but they didn't show up well.''
The Warriors boss has no injury or suspension problems ahead of the game but faces a dilemma over who to play in attack.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
| Peterhead | 0 | |
| Alloa Athletic | 0 | FT |
| Cowdenbeath | 0 | |
| Brechin City | 0 | FT |
| Dumbarton | 1 | |
| Arbroath | 0 | FT |
| East Fife | 2 | |
| Stenhousemuir | 1 | FT |
| Stirling Albion | 1 | |
| Clyde | 1 | FT |