The Fifers just scraped a win against Cowdenbeath in the CECIL Cup on Wednesday. When the lineups were revealed, it looked as if it should be a comfortable victory for us.  Alan Bishop had fielded a weak team (no player above SL19) and decided to stall.  This yielded us a shot advantage of 8.5% to 1.9%.  Not decisive in itself but the Mad Cows had their apprentice keeper (SL5) between the sticks and surely he wouldn't stop much.  Sadly our shooting was woeful, and we didn;t manage a shot on target until the 81st minute - and that effort was a comfortable save.  But with two minutes left we finally broke through when a brilliant solo effort by Kallum Higginbotham (pictured) snatched us a 1-0 victory, our first win of the seson.

Phew!

So, it’s a new season and the Fifers have scraped into Division 1.  Our first match was a home tie against Elgin City and this looked like one we could win, boasting a shot chance of 10.6% against 4.6% as well as a slightly better keeper.  But Elgin struck first with a 13th minute goal and we trailed until just before half time when defender Charlie Murray popped up in the box to fire home an equaliser.  And soon after half time we took the lead we deserved, a superb finish by new boy Malachy Cash (pictured).  The 2-1 lead only lasted two minutes before Charlie Murray blotted his copy book with a dreadful clearance which led to a 2-2 scoreline.  And that was the end of the scoring.  We got the shots we deserved but our keeper Matty Rollo had a poor afternoon, conceding two goals from five on-target shots.

On to match two and a trip to Arbroath who boast a slight shot advantage, 7.7% to our 6.0%, but once again we have a better keeper so a draw would seem to be a fair result.  Sadly, that didn’t happen, we were well beaten, 4-1.  Malachy Cash again got a goal here, and it looks as if he will be a great asset for the club.

A disappointing start in the league, we’ll hope to get our first win in the CECIL Cup

We are pleased to welcome three new Fifers at the start of the season, one transfer, one Bosman and one apprentice.

Malachy Cash joins on a part-exchange deal with Peterhead, replacing aging superstar Kieran Millar in midfield.  Malachy Is a surfer.  In his VW camper he travels the East coast of Scotland chasing waves in all seasons.  A seaside lover who never got over the feel of sand and the taste of salt, he loves life in a wetsuit with no obligations to anyone else.   He takes his cream tea with the jam first and is mortally offended if it’s raspberry not strawberry.  He is a collector of shells and unusual stones and can always be caught on the beach with his arse in the air happily minding his own business.

Our Bosman signing this season is another midfielder, Lewis Latona.  Show off Lewis hasn’t stopped raving since he hit 16 and is never happier than when throwing shapes in the centre of a circle.  He has a cheeky grin and a fixed thousand-yard stare that is only broken in the frenzied ten minutes in which he needs to purchase next year’s Glastonbury ticket.  His wardrobe principally consists of a wide selection of neon bubble hats and flip-flops, which he supplements with various sweaty band t-shirts that he picks up on his travels.  That said, in his job as head gardener at a stately home he has won awards for his topiary maze design (and the plants don’t care what he wears).

Finally we welcome apprentice defender Joe Halsey.  Joe went on a gap year when he left school and has only recently come back after over three years.  In his travels around Europe he has become fluent in five languages and has never tired of eating dim sum for breakfast.  He still has no place to call his own but instead keeps moving around – his home is wherever he takes his trainers off.  He is a self-proclaimed artist who would maybe have something to show off , but he keeps losing track of his sketchbooks.  Perhaps one day he will finally “find himself” (and some drawings) in a bowl of soup and blow us all away with the talent he’s been assuring us he has.