Seventh heaven for Stenhousemuir as current crop make history

Stenhousemuir boss Gary Naysmith on the touchline against East Fife on Saturday (Pictures: Alan Murray)

The Warriors secured a 2-1 win over East Fife at Ochilview last Saturday – and that victory ensured that Naysmith’s men went 12 unbeaten in league fixtures, having won their previous seven matches in a row, keeping a clean sheet in four of them.

"I made a big point of focusing on that after Saturday’s game rather than how we maybe didn’t play as well in the second half compared to the first half,” Naysmith said. “I wanted the guys to really appreciate that at any level, winning seven league games in a row is a hard thing to do.

“I wasn’t actually aware at the time that it was a club record. It is a feather in the players’ caps and they should enjoy it. When you reach an achievement like that you should celebrate.”

Stenhousemuir captain Gregor Buchanan clears an East Fife cross during the second half of his side’s 2-1 League 2 win (Pictures: Alan Murray)

On the match, which saw early goals from Euan O’Reilly and Matty Yates seal the three points, he added: “Up until the hour mark they weren’t really causing us any problems and we had probably had the best chance of the second half in its entirety when Matty Yates broke through and pulled one wide.

“East Fife made substitutions to go for it and they came into the game as you would expect. That was going to happen at one point and they put us under pressure. But we had some half-chances too.

"Allan Fleming also stopped it going to 3-0 when Euan’s (O’Reilly) shot was saved and he also got down to Matty Aitken’s rebound.

“Listen, we got lucky with the offside goal. I’m not too sure that Nathan Austin was offside.

Stenny ace Michael Anderson makes his move on the ball against East Fife (Pictures: Alan Murray)

"But it is so difficult to control a match for 90 minutes. We were so far ahead in the first half that I think it took us by surprise a wee bit how East Fife got on top. But they are a good team who have been a bit inconsistent.

“We got there in the end and sometimes that is what it is all about. You don’t drop silly points and get the victory.”

Stenhousemuir now host struggling Elgin City this Saturday at Ochilview, with the visitors second bottom. New boss Allan Hale has taken charge of two matches so far, losing both of them 4-0.

“Everyone in Scottish football will look at it, with the run we are on, and where they are currently, and expect it to be a guaranteed home win – but football doesn’t work like that,” Naysmith said previewing the match. “We need to make sure that we are ready and that we treat Elgin City with the same respect that would do for any other game.

"We’ll do our video analysis and prep the players as well as we can. We will give them as much information as we can going into the match.

“He (Allan Hale) has only been in charge for two matches. He is still learning his team and his best players. He made a few changes from his first to second game and I expect that he may make some again for this one.

"You aren’t sure what formation you are going to come up against so it is important that we focus on ourselves and control what we can.”