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Away From The Numbers
Welcome to THE unofficial East Fife Football Club forum. Feel free to discuss East Fife, football in general, music, politics or anything else you want! If you're posting anything non football related just mark it: O/T or MUSIC or POLITICS or whatever it's about! Just makes it easier for people to keep track. Watch out for announcements and updates and talk about what you've read or what you'd like to see on the main AFTN site. We're not aiming to edit or remove posts, but obviously racist, violent and libelous posts will be removed. People impersonating other posters and/or posting under their name will find themselves banned. This is an independent forum with no connection to East Fife Football Club, East Fife Supporters Trust or any East Fife Supporters Club. All posts are the views and legal responsibility of individual posters and are not necessarily the views of the site owner. Enjoy the forum.
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East Fife Mail
 Jul 16, 08 - 4:31 PM |
Student test ahead of Irish tour dates
East Fife look to a different tactical approach for forthcoming pre-season games after Saturday's disappointing loss to Spartans. EAST Fife fans turning up for tonight's (Wednesday) pre-season visit by Edinburgh University can be assured of one thing. They'll not see 10 substitutions as they witnessed on Saturday. Manager Dave Baikie and assistant Graeme Irons reckon a differADVERTISEMENTent kind of experiment will be in order over the next few games, while still trying to give as many players as much game time as possible. After playing the students tonight, the squad is off to Northern Ireland for games with Newry on Friday and Loughgall on Saturday, followed by a trip to Forfar on July 22 and a home game with Hamilton Academical two days later. The season proper arrives with the Challenge Cup game at Brechin on July 26 and the start of the new Division Two campaign at home to Peterhead on August 2. Tomorrow (Thursday) sees the launch of the new replica kit with a special evening for fans at Bayview. With a squad of 21 fit players to choose from, Baikie has a complicated task ahead in finding his ideal line-up, having missed the 10-1 drubbing of Star Hearts and Saturday's defeat by Spartans because of a holiday in Turkey. Rejoining the squad on Monday night for training, he indicated he may effectively choose two teams – one to face Newry and Forfar, the other to line up against Loughgall and Hamilton Accies. "Six games in around 10 days is a big ask," he said. "I want everyone to have four or five matches under their belts but we also need a sense of togetherness and for the players to be comfortable playing alongside each other." Although victories in pre-season fixtures were generally regarded as less important than planning towards the first match of the season, Baikie also hoped to string some good results together. "Psychologically, it's good to get used to winning," he added. Deputy Irons admitted making so many changes after half-time against Spartans had proved a mistake, although the intention again had been to get as many players match fit as possible. "The first half was excellent but we did make too many changes in the second half to try and give players a game," he said. "The result was not the be all and end all and I wasn't too bothered about it – I felt we had quite a strong team and the first half proved that," he added. "Barring their keeper, we could have been three or four ahead." But the impetus vanished after four alterations at the break and six more in the second period, while Irons praised the Edinburgh side. The outcome would hopefully serve as a reminder that the Fifers couldn't just turn up, regardless of the opposition, and go through the motions, said Irons. And while he accepted some responsibility for Saturday, he added: "The second half performance was unacceptable from our point of view." Dave Baikie also confirmed the Fifers had spoken to Colin Cameron's agent, after the former Scotland, Hearts and Raith Rovers player turned out as a trialist for Dundee. Bakie said indications were the player would return to England but the fact East Fife had been involved in talks was a good example of the club's ambition. The full article contains 564 words and appears in n/a newspaper. |
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