East Fife 1 Edinburgh University 0

EAST FIFE recorded a hard-fought 1-0 win over Edinburgh University in last night’s pre-season friendly at Bayview.

If the Fifers thought they would teach the students an easy lesson, those ideas were dispelled as early as the fourth minute when a through ball from Michael Dick wasn’t dealt with and allowed Benji Antoni to race clear, only for the striker to see his effort come back off the post with Willie McCulloch beaten.

Three minutes later, Chris Templeman sent a header just over from Kevin Gordon’s corner prior to Lloyd Young blasting a shot skywards from a tight angle in the 22nd minute.

Paul McManus could have put the home side in front six minutes before the interval, but couldn’t direct his header from Templeman’s cross.

He then tested student keeper Scott Cantley to open the second period before Kevin Fotheringham almost scored a bizarre own goal at the other end as John McRae’s clearance hit him full in the face before going wide.

On 65 minutes, Templeman failed to trouble Cantley with a low shot from inside the area before the Fifers finally broke the deadlock a minute later as Fotheringham headed home Paul Walker’s whipped cross from the left.

Edinburgh almost responded immediately, though, when Scott Fusco made McCulloch work from a powerful free kick.

The game petered out as a contest as both sides made changes, although there was still time for sub Paul Nugent to test Cantley with the last kick of the ball.

East Fife boss Dave Baikie was pleased with the result but admitted the aim of the game was to improve the squad’s match fitness.

“I’m not unhappy as most of the players just back from holiday got 90 minutes for us and it was a good exercise,” he commented.

East Fife—McCulloch, Guy (Nugent 70), McRae, McDonald, Fotheringham, Greenhill (Walker 73), Gordon (Blackadder 78), Stewart, McManus, Templeman (Nicholas 78), Young. Subs not used—O’Reilly.

Edinburgh Uni—Cantley, Fusco, Scott (Connelly 35), Leslie, Thompson, Milne (McFarlane 58), Hogg, Redman, Woods, Antoni (McIntosh 45), Dick (Irvine 75).

Referee: Tommy Robertson.