East Fife v Forfar Athletic - Match Preview

The ‘Loons’ are off on their travels for a fourth successive Saturday tomorrow when they make the short trip over the Tay to tackle East Fife at the New Bayview Stadium.

Since their victory over Ayr United in their last home league outing on January 12th, Dick Campbell’s men have lost all three away jousts, all be it not against the easiest of opposition in league leaders Queen of the South and local rivals Arbroath on points gathering business, prior to last week’s exit from the cup at Falkirk.

A worry for the management team however has undoubtedly been the fact that in those three games, the defence has shipped ten goals and this will obviously be an area that they will be looking to tighten up for tomorrow’s contest against a home side who according to reports turned in one of their poorest displays since Billy Brown took the reins losing 3-1 down at Stranraer last week.
The Fifers certainly had the upper hand on the ‘Loons’ previous visit to Fife this season winning comfortably 3-0. They then led 2-0 at Station Park on the Saturday after Christmas, before the home side fought back in style, goals from Iain Campbell from the penalty spot, Danny Denholm and Gavin Swankie securing a 3-2 victory.

The visitors will go into the game minus the suspended Willie Robertson with Odmar Faeroe and Dale Hilson also likely to be ruled out by injury. This could lead to a return for on loan Jordon Brown and a debut for Gregor Fotheringham signed last week till the end of the season from Rangers. Both players played in a bounce match against Dundee North End at Station Park on Tuesday past.
A bonus for the watching Forfar management team in that game was the return after a lengthy lay off of Keith Gibson who was given a second half outing. Keith will continue to build up his fitness over then coming weeks, prior to his return to first team action.

All involved with the Station Park club were thrilled with the away support of just on 300 at Falkirk last week and hopefully quite a few will again make the effort to tackle the less than 100 mile round trip on Saturday to back the team.

The match will be refereed by Premier League list official Craig Charleston.