East Fife 4 - 1 Aberdeen

By NORMAN MACDONALD

MR DAVID HALLIDAY and his directors are faced with a problem on the eve of their Scottish Cup third-round tie with Motherwell at Pittodrie.
The Dons gave a poor display against East Fife at Methil. On recent form team changes would be justified, but whether or not they will take a chance in the Cup-tie remains to be seen.
Whatever their decision, the fact remains that the team, in recent weeks, has not given satisfaction. Perhaps the form against East Fife was too bad to be true. I would like to think so.
The attack came in for criticism in the last cup-tie against St Mirren, but the defenders, as well as the forwards, failed to do their job at Methil.
Three goals were lost in three minutes, and the game was won and lost. Any defence which is involved in such a disaster must obviously be suspect.

Couldn't Cope

The Aberdeen defenders couldn't cope with the direct, hard-hitting Fife forward line.
Mitchell, Shaw and Young were not quick enough or incisive enough in clearing their lines.
Shaw's positional sense was keen enough, but his clearances lacked length. Young was not impressive in the middle and he had the same fault as Shaw as far as clearing his lines was concerned.
Mitchell failed lo get a grip of Matthew in the first half, but there was an improvement in his play after the interval.

Fought Hard

Harris and Allister fought hard to curb the dashing and thrusttul East Fife attack. The left half had an unenviable task against Fleming who was in irrepressible mood.
While the Aberdeen defence laid itself open to criticism, the forwards were no more successful. They never impressed as a match-winning combine.
The Fifers believed in direct methods and the result points to the fact that they were on the right lines.
The Dons had their brightest period during a twenty minutes' spell in the second half. They moved with speed and precision, but unfortunately it was only a flash in the pan.
Yorston was the key man in this revival. The inside left showed some of his old speed and thrust.

No Personality

The Dons, however, had no outstanding personality in defence or attack. There were occasional flashes from Hamilton, but the inside right seemed to have mislaid the usual magic touch. Let’s hope he was saving it for the cup-tie.
Fleming was the inspiration of the Fife attack. If it is true that the lanky inside right was the reason for the presence of Mr Billy Murray, then I fancy the Sunderland chief will make a bid for Fleming.
In an effort to produce the winning urge Buckley and Rodger were switched in the Dons’ front line at half-time, but frankly I failed to discern any noticeable improvement.
The one consolation to be derived from Saturday's results from the Aberdeen point of view is the fact that Motherwell, too, are still in the throes of bad patch.

Source: Evening Express, 16th February 1953