Petering, Penurious Controllers of Sporting Gangs,

East Fife kicked off a new season in the Third Division today against Stenhousemuir. Stenny were narrowed squeezed out of the promotion places last year so today’s match could have been a tough task for East Fife, but it’s impossible to predict anything in the lower divisions at the start of the season. Such is the lack of money at this level of the Scottish football, each team releases so many players at the end of their league campaigns only to be left with the chore of almost complete re-staffing before the end of July.

After the efforts of the Down With Brown campaign last year, dastardly chairman Derrick Brown has been replaced by Willie Gray and Sid Collumbine. But, in a bizarre twist, Brown has been retained at the club in a paid position, with the title of secretary/treasurer no less. Firstly, Brown was a PR disaster last year – he’s not the type of man I’d trust with any communications outside his own cranium. Secondly, in a bizarre situation whereby a nine year-old girl is the major shareholder overseen by Brown as chairman, he’s not a man I’d rely upon to provide financial security and transparency. The continued employment of Brown has meant that the Down with Brown protest campaign has continued, they say they’ll continue to stand on the mound outside the ground until he leaves, and rightly so.

The shuffling of board positions worries me, the demotion of Brown may merely be a façade, but I don’t know exactly for what – fans generally don’t care what happens behind the scenes if the team is successful. Willie Gray is the new chairman; he was formerly on the board of directors at hated local rivals, Raith Rovers. Sid Collumbine has taken the position of vice-chairman after recently purchasing a number of shares; he has held director positions at both Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton. Raith Rovers supporters recently led their own campaign to remove their board of directors (including Gray) after poor on-field performances and shady off-field dealings. What worries me about the East Fife protestors is that once Brown has gone, they’re willing to accept the tenure of Gray and Collumbine at their club and return to the stadium. I don’t trust either, if I were a supporter of a club – Raith Rovers, Dumbarton or Stenhousemuir – I’d remain loyal to them. Fans don’t change their team. There seem to be many characters in the lower leagues of Scottish football that flit from club to club, I question their motives, they can only be doing this for themselves; exploiting each club. In my view, East Fife need a rich local man who is a fan of East Fife to invest in them, someone who is fiercely loyal to East Fife only and is willing to accept losing his own money to see East Fife be successful.

Today, I paid to watch the game in the stadium; standing on the mound will not remove all the figures from the club who I’d like to see go and above all, I just wanted to watch the game with an unrestricted view. East Fife started with only one player who was at the club last season; although he was never a regular player, so it was effectively a whole new team. Stenhousemuir seemed to have also undergone widespread changes.

It finished 0-0 but it was quite entertaining, both sides had chances. In the first half, an East Fife striker had a great opportunity from 8 yards but failed to beat the keeper; he rolled the ball rather tamely towards the keeper’s left-hand post instead of blasting it high into the net, cult-figure, Stenny goalie Willie McCulloch wasn’t to be fooled. Iain Ross, East Fife’s new keeper made an amazing save from a close-range flicked volley. It’s a real shame that there are no video cameras at these games; moments of action like that really ought to be preserved, it reminded me of one David Marshall (Celtic) made against Barcelona.

Despite all the new players, it was a typical East Fife performance; they kick the ball as far as they can in the direction that they face and they still can’t take throw-ins. East Fife had most of the chances in the second half with Blackadder sending over many good crosses but these weren’t converted into goals. At the other end, Stenhousemuir had an effort cleared off the line by Jonathan Smart, East Fife also survived an epic scramble in their six-yard box.

It’s difficult to judge how well East Fife will do this season on the basis of this game; these two teams might well be the two title contenders. East Fife will undoubtedly fare better if their off-field crisis is solved and the mound protestors return to the stadium to give their full backing to the players in a noisy and exciting Bayview, somehow, I think this will be a hope that goes unfulfilled for a long time.