East Fife 5 Shire 0

Shire went out of the Scottish Cup in disappointing fashion against Second Division East Fife at New Bayview on Saturday.

There were hopes that the team’s recently improved form might give them an outside chance of an upset but that never turned out to be the case. In fact, Shire keeper Calum Antell turned out to be the team’s hero, making some brilliant saves despite losing five goals.

Ally Love and Ryan Frances were banned for the big game, and coach John Coughlin made just one change to the team that had played so well a week previously in drawing with Elgin City. Alex Lurinsky came into the starting eleven for the suspended Love.

But Shire made a really disappointing start to the match and never really recovered. After just two minutes Bobby Linn was clean through on goal and only a great save from Antell stopped him opening the scoring.

East Fife’s attacks were relentless and on four minutes Antell had to make a great diving save from Robert Sloan’s 20 yard free-kick and only seconds later Ryan Wallace was clean through but somehow his shot came back off the post with the Shire keeper beaten.

The visitors never looked as though they would be able to hold out for long and it was no surprise when East Fife took the lead after twelve minutes. Wallace chased a lost cause to the bye-line and sent in a low centre which Antell tried to clear with a boot upfield. Unfortunately for the Shire keeper his attempted clearance hit Robert Ogleby and looped over his head into the net.

Four minutes later Sloan’s cross from the left was met by a powerful header from home centre-half David White which hit the inside of Antell’s far post and luckily for Shire bounced back into safety.

The visitors first real attack of the game might have brought a goal on 19 minutes. Bradley Coyne twisted and turned on the edge of the 18 yard line and created enough room for a decent crack at goal but former Shire keeper Michael Brown produced a decent save.

Shire then had decent efforts from Fraser Team and Alex Lurinsky but neither could force Brown into a save. It seemed as though the visitors might survive with no more damage inflicted until the break but that was not how things turned out.

With barely two minutes of the half remaining Andy Stirling gave the ball away on the edge of the East Fife box and that gave the home team the chance to stage a lightning counter-attack when ended with Ogleby shooting past Antell from just inside the box.

Things got worse for Shire just three minutes into the second half. Sloan and Darren Smith passed their way into the visitors penalty area and when the ball broke kindly for Wallace he had little trouble taking it round Antell and placing it into the empty net.

With the game effectively over East Fife moved back down the gears and the match lost its intensity. Nevertheless, Antell was still kept busy especially when it came to denying East Fife forwards who found themselves clean through on goal.

The Shire keeper managed to save the situation on at least three occasions when it looked odds-on that the home team would increase its advantage further. His presence and positioning was enough each time to make sure the East Fife player fluffed his lines.

But there was little he could do to stop the home team taking a 4-0 lead after 70 minutes. The route to goal was simple enough; Wallace crossed from the right and while the Shire defence stood admiring it was Linn who got to the ball first to shoot past a stranded Antell from point-blank range.

That increased East Fife’s appetite for more goals but they continued to be thwarted by Antell who almost single-handedly at times was denying the eager home players.

East Fife managed just one more strike before the 90 minutes elapsed. Sloan received the ball 25 yards from goal and with all the time and space he required fired in a great shot which hit the underside of the crossbar before bouncing over the line.

EAST FIFE : Brown, Durie, Coook, Campbell, White, Muir(Johnstone 35), Linn, Smith(Ovenstone 61), Ogleby(Hislop 70), Wallace, Sloan.

SHIRE : Antell, Chisholm, Maxwell, Cane, Jackson, Hunter, Lurinsky(Gibson 63), Stirling, Coyne, Horner, Team(Turner 77).

REFEREE : G. Aitken.

ATTENDANCE : 585.