2-0 Forfar after 15 minutes

2-1 down

Sloan penalty after 19 minutes.

As at stands (Stenny getting beat and Brechin drawing), a win would put us into 4th, 2 points clear of 5th - all teams with 11 games left after tonight. Let's hope we can turn it round and get a shot or two on target (unlike Saturday).

Half time 2-1

Stirling now beating Brechin!

Yet again another poor performance so far. Far too big a gap between the midfield and forwards and too many players not turning up.

3-1.

Text from someone at the game...."WE ARE BRUTAL!"

FFS .

3-2. Wallace (pen) Too late though!!!

FT Forfar 3 East Fife 2.

The first half and first 20 minutes in particular was as bad as I've seen from an East Fife team.The game would probably been over but for some great saves from Michael Brown and a soft penalty to us.
A slight improvement the second half but a terrible miss by Hislop at 2-1 just about summed us up.
There is something seriously amiss when we are producing such a performance in important game.

Well that was just bloody awful. No fight, no motivation, no desire whatsoever from the team tonight. We were lucky to be only 2-1 down at half time thanks to two or three world class saves from Broony again. Team were an absolute shambles...defence was all over the place, midfield was pretty much non-existant (that was until Darren Smith came off the bench, who should always be in the starting line up). Didn't really make any good chances apart from one open goal that Hissy somehow managed to miss early on in the second half. After that it was pretty much all Forfar who completely deserved their 3 points tonight...wanted it much more than we did and were a totally different team to that we beat 4-0 just over a week ago. Even more disappointing with Stenhousemuir and Brechin losing tonight. Arbroath away this weekend...God help us.

Forfar hadn't won in 6 games prior to tonight. We have been pathetic for weeks now and nowhere good enough for a play off place. Bunch of half hearted shambles of a team with a manager who seems to have lost the dressing room.

Yet again no heart no fight ,we were lucky to get away with 3-2.
Stood behind the dugout and from what I saw it looked like Robbo didn't want to be there - negative body language - very little tactics but plenty of " hey so and so ask the other so and so why he did that?" Durie at least tried to get the team going and gave encouragement to the players.
Compare that with Forfar manager. & coaches 2 of them in 1st half and 3 in 2nd constantly shouted advice about positions , tactics and encouragement, they never stopped throughout the match .
No alterations to formations or tactics - their midfield was totally overrunning ours with their no 7 in particular having a field day in 1st half.
Heard there was a big shouting match after the Dumbarton game . Looks as if the players have lost there motivation . Know this is here say and we as fans don't really know what's going on behind the scene but it looks to me that the manager would rather not be with us and many of the players are not playing for him.
Time to start thinking and building for next season as, on last few performances were not going to get near the playoffs

Is it not high time jukey took over.

NOW

Stevie Campbell is different gravy. Great tackling, perfect positioning and has a fantastic leap. Won't be with us for long.

Andrew Cook was excellent last night. As was Mikey Broon!

The rest? Garbage.

Were not going up. Were not going down. Perfect time to see what Durie can offer.

Time to go Robbo

Agree with most of what's been said. We could have been 4 or 5 down at half time, poor defending, a midfield which was posted missing and hence no real supply to the front men who were isolated for most of the game. Broonie to the rescue again. We seemed to be unable to get in their faces and they won every 50/50 ball and really looked up for it. Passing out of defence was as bad as I've seen it, just kept giving the ball back to them and they built attack after attack.
Second half was marginally better but still no real threat from us. Penalties were the only way we were likely to score. Brutal stuff.

Hislop as player manager until the end of the season?

Reeks of big issues behind the scenes. Looks like the players arent playing for the manager! Needs sorted now!

If the players aren`t playing for the Manager, any chance they could start playing for themselves and for the fans who part with hard earned cash to follow and support them.

Just a thought likes.

really thought we would get summit out the game ... backs against the wall now ..arbroath and then the minks too come ...footnote ...we havnt beat Cowdenbeath in the league for 20 years ffs ...its not that they are Barcelona ....hope the players pull out all the stops from, now until the fat lady sings ...east fife fur ever...

This an early April fool?? No sure what bit is funnier, the player or the manager part!!!!

On a realistic note, what is the script with Durie?? There was talk of him taking over and Robbo jacking it in due to outrageous travelling arrangements. Why can't Durie take over training during the week, which would surely make life easier for Robbo and also help assess whether Durie is ready for management. Also, can it be that hard to take training, because based on the 'on park' performances, they aren't working on much.

Just really hoping for some sort of improvement and consistency from the team as we are still in a great position to make the play off's and relegate the Rovers

Come on the Fife!!!!

Here we go with the let's get rid of the manager shouts. John Robertson has more football knowledge in his big toe, tham we "fans" have combined.
Last Tuesday night the criticsm was for changing a winning team, this Tuesday he should have played Smith (which would have meant changing a winning team).
Forfar desrved to win, much improved from their performance at Bayview 10 days earlier, but we missed some real clear chances, which if taken could have put us level or above Stenhousemuir. Hislop side footed past the post in the 1st half when it looked easier to score, and his second half miss at 2-1, was probably among the worst I have seen in 40 years of watching football, including Iwolumo versus Norway.
Other decent chances from Muir, Linn, Wallace were also passed up. But that's football.
We currently sit in our loftiest league position for 15 years. We have reached our first cup QF in 34 years, and yet it seems to be the Fife way to turn on the manager after a couple of defeats.
The players were all prepared to sign for Robbo at the start of the season, so why do they no longer want to play for him as suggested by some?
A promotion play off place is still a realitic outcome, and Robbo deserves to be in place to try and get us there.

I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of hearing "Robbo must go".
He travels more in a week than half of you boys do for work in a month. If he wasn't committed to the cause he would have left a long time ago. You are forcing out possibly one of the best managers the club could get at the moment with your deluded views that we should be pushing to be a 1st division club.

The reality of it is that we would be chewed up and spat back into the 2nd in record time. We don't have the fans, money, the board or most importantly the squad to even have a chance in a higher division than the 2nd right now. We all need to come to terms with the fact that we are probably at best a top 5 2nd division side at the moment and that it won't change until there is a real shake up behind the scenes at the club.

Wasnt at game last night but a defeat was always on the cards as our recent form hasnt been great.Our season has been plagued by inconsistency.Our home game against arbroath in january was our best performance in a long time and since then we have been poor.We have had our share of injuries to deal with as well.As the results show in this league if you dont give 100% you will be punished.Cowden lost at forfar earlier in the season, look at brechin last night, cowden last midweek.The difference with cowden and arbroath is they have been consistent where we win three then lose three.I am still of the believe that our problems lie in the midfield,and the balance hasnot been right.You could count on one hand how many times we have dominated a game in the middle of the park.Another thing is robbo willnot try anything other than a 442 and maybe by playing an extra midfield player in some games would tighten the midfield up and give the defence some protection.We are now in a mini league of three with stennie ourselves and brechin,but we have a hard run of games in march and on current form we could slip the other way quickly.I expect more of the same inconsistency win some lose some.However if we can get more fight and mobility in the midfield we could improve our form.

This was as bad a performance as I have seen in a while from the Fife. We are so consistently inconsistent! From the start of the game, we were a shambles at the back, sitting too far back. Stevie C and Davey W, in particular, just invited Forfar onto them. The clearances from the defenders were woeful. We never got stuck into them as they did with us either in defence or midfield. I wish we had defenders who got stuck into forwards as the opposition does against our front players. What about the wild swings and miskicks by Campbell and White in the second half! (I heard some one from Forfar shout that they should play on Campbell as he is useless! Not one of his better games, I would have to say.)Templeman ran the show so why could no-one get stuck into him. Every kick out from Broonie went to him!

The midfield were all over the place, neither helping the defence nor providing any decent passes/crosses for the forwards. The forwards missed chances. Hislop snatched at the chance in the first half after it was miskicked by Muir (I think), six yards out! You would like to think, however, that Muir first and then Hislop should have at least hit the target. Hislop did not miss in the second half - it was blocked by McCulloch! So no comparison with the Scotland international. Again we fans would have liked him to have scored, though. So open your eyes and get your facts right. I would say that Hissy had as poor a game as I have seen him play. As an experienced player I would expect that he knows that. He should also watch his tackles; a few wild ones, leading to a booking! Mind you, it would have been helpful if our defence/midfield got near the Forfar players to put a tackle in!! Ryan also needs to put away the petted lip when things do not go his way. Thankfully he has scored goals for us but he has a lot to learn.

As regards the manager, I offer no comment.

Lets sum up by saying that the team were very poor and got what they deserved. As happens in football, the opposition were better on the night as we were better than them 10 days ago. The cause, however, is not lost. I remain the eternal optimist when it comes to the Fife, do I not!

We beat Cowdenbeath twice, in the league, at Bayview the season they won the 3rd under Mixu. 2005/06 I think. Still been mostly dire against them for a long time.

Three points against a injury and suspension hit Arbroath on sat and well be the best thing since sliced bread again.
I do think there is a bit of a lack of leadership and fight on the park which needs addressed.Too may followers on the pitch not enough leaders when the chips are down. In perspective a play off place is still in our grasp despite disappointments against Sons and Forfar. That would cap a truly amazing season given our cup run

An afterthought. How is it when we win, this site is quiet. Yet as soon we get beat or dont play particularly well, someone starts/includes in a thread comments having a go at individual players/team/manager. Thereafter, myself included, fall into the trap of responding!! May be I should not bite!

Lets see what happens after Saturday and concentrate on the other games for the rest of the seaon. I am sure that the players want a play off spot as much as we do. At least last night,thankfully, the other results went in our favour.

The worry now after losing last night we could be pulled into the relegation battle in the next 3 weeks.The next 3 saturday fixtures are Arbroath,cowden and dumbarton.When you consider we have taken a total 1 point in the previous 8 games this season involving these teams. These games will define our season!!