From The Courier: Arbroath player-manager Paul Sheerin is not getting carried away despite a crucial victory over East Fife on Saturday.
Sheerin, who saw his team close the gap on the Fifers and Airdrie, said: “It’s the first time we’ve had back-to-back wins all season, which is not bad timing, but it’s still a lot to play for.
“The bottom line is we’re still bottom of the pile, so all we’ve done is give ourselves a fighting chance.”
East Fife boss Gary Naysmith said: “I just want to apologise for that second-half performance. It was dreadful, the worst since I’ve been manager.
“We never turned up in the second half.
“Arbroath caused us a lot of problems in the second half, which shouldn’t have been the case. With the conditions, we should have been in the ascendancy pushing them back and yet it was the other way about.”
Both sides put on a spirited performance in the first half, and with the wind to their advantage Arbroath made the first strikes into the visitors’ box with Bobby Linn slicing one across the face of the goal and a decent foray from Alan Cook all in the first two minutes.
The Fifers fought back and the game settled into a real tussle for dominance.
A confused mess in the Arbroath box saw East Fife open the scoring after 17 minutes, and although the goal was initially attributed to Fifer Liam Buchanan, a steward’s investigation declared it the fault of Arbroath’s own Alex Keddie.
The Lichties went back up the park and five minutes later Michael Travis took advantage of a deflection from a Linn set piece and brought the homesters level again.
A swarming attack by the visitors after the interval petered out and Arbroath took control.
Occasional moments of cohesion from East Fife were ruthlessly shut down by a strong home defence and, despite Naysmith mixing it up tactically by bringing on Ryan Stewart for Barr (67) and Nathan Austin for McKenzie (74), Arbroath forged ahead thanks to a thundering strike from McManus three minutes later.
The home side kept looking for that final nail in East Fife’s coffin and brought on Dayle Robertson for Linn (80) and Kieran McWalter for McManus (90), but had to be content with a 2-1 finish.