After a flurry of new and loan sgnings, the starting eleven had a new look about it with Lunan, Cameron, McCulloch, Forsyth, McGowan all in. no sign of Flyer or Bishop even on the bench.
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No real threat from either end until on 31 minutes a through ball from the left seemed to elude Rennie (?) alloing Linn to close in on goal and McCulloch's tackle from behind was penalised. he received only a yellow and Linn scored smartly in the top corner
East Fife focused on claming down the game - not that it was ever lively - with ostentatious time-wasting (first half and juvenile remarks from a few EFife players to irritate the home fans - they succeeded). Sctt seemed increasingly frustrated at the service
Second half never go going for Arbroath. A few decent positions were wasted by poor freekicks so we rarely came close. Then another Lnn on goal break saw Rattray make what seemed a decent and timely tackle only to receive straight red.
0-2 down and with Black, Gates and Ross on, Arbroath never came close for the last half hour. east Fife kept posession well, occasionally threatened and we relied on a couple of good Hill saves to keep us in it. Fortunately the defence kept their concentration.
Desperately disappointing home showing - yet again - for Arbroath. east Fife are competent enough though lackinf ambition. Even when the result was settled, they seemed more intent on keeping possession than adding to their goal difference.
You can't keep letting down te home fans like this. At our last game at New Bayview, East Fife had a 2 man disadvantage and nicked the winner. once we were down to 10 men, there was no spirit to fight back or even regain possession.
Fife's defence looked well organised, caught us offside a god few times and drained the life out of the game. We lacked the nous to penetrate it and the midfield was missing most of the game - most don;t look match fit. McCulloch, Cameron and Lunan barely won a ball all afternoon and were easily pushed aside - Sellars was missing in action.
The two front men McGowan and Scott ran and harried well but you need some service and some support to allow them
With games running out, playing half-fit players will not turn it around for us. And then there Dobbins to come, just to sicken the loyal fans
From the BBC
Two Bobby Linn penalties kept East Fife in the Division Two title hunt after a deserved victory over 10-man Arbroath.
The Methill side took the lead after 32 minutes when Linn was caught by Marc McCulloch and netted the spot-kick.
Linn was again caught, this time by Alan Rattray, and the Arbroath defender was shown a straight red card.
Linn took the resulting penalty and made no mistake to earn his side three points and keep up the pressure on third-place Brechin.