East Fife vs Alloa preview - Crawford included

Posted Saturday, November 06, 2010 by PA

Former East Fife manager Stevie Crawford has been included in new manager John Robertson's pool for his first home game in charge against Alloa.

The Fifers have two unnamed players carrying knocks and will also be missing goalkeeper Stewart Baillie and on-loan Falkirk midfielder Stewart Murdoch through suspension.

Former Hearts, Inverness and Livingston manager Robertson does not know a lot about his opponents, saying: "I haven`t seen much of Alloa over recent years so I don`t know a great deal about them, but I know plenty about Allan Maitland, who is a great manager at this level.

"His teams are never far away from top spot, so this will be a tough test."

Alloa welcome back forward Stuart Noble.

Noble has recovered from the ankle injury that has kept him out for nearly three months.

Wasps boss Allan Maitland has a full-strength squad to choose from with the exception of long-term absentee Brown Ferguson.

Maitland is determined to see his side defend better after they lost the lead against Brechin last week.

He said: "We are losing bad goals just now and to be 2-1 up against the league leaders only to give away the lead was disappointing.

"We are playing well and games have been exciting, but we seem to need to score three times to win a game, so I have asked everybody to tighten up defensively."