Competition: | Scottish League | Scottish Cup | League Cup |
Matches Played | 57 | 3 | 8 |
East Fife Wins | 22 | 2 | 4 |
Falkirk Wins | 19 | 1 | 3 |
Drawn Matches | 16 | 0 | 1 |
Totals (for League, Scottish Cup and League Cup):
Matches Played | 68 |
East Fife Wins | 28 |
Falkirk Wins | 23 |
Drawn Matches | 17 |
Total Number of Goals Scored (in all three competitions):
East Fife | 109 | Falkirk | 116 |
The first of East Fife's three League Cup final wins was against
Falkirk in 1947. A crowd of 52,781 watched the two sides fight out a no scoring draw at
Hampden Park on 25 October. East Fife created most of the chances in a match where
both goalkeepers were in top form. East Fife's best chance over the 120 minutes play was a
Dougie Davidson piledriver which Falkirk 'keeper (and future East Fife Manager!) Jerry
Dawson did well to save. A disappointing crowd of 30,664 turned out at Hampden to watch
the replay the following Saturday and, ironically, it was a goalkeeping error by Falkirk's
Dawson which gave the Methil side the lead in only 8 minutes. The 'keeper misjudged a
cross from Davie Duncan and Tommy Adams was on hand to nudge the ball home. In sixteen
minutes East Fife went two up - and again Dawson was at fault. The Falkirk custodian
failed to grasp a cross from George Aitken and this time it was Davie Duncan who was on
hand to fire the ball home. Falkirk then came more into the game and equalised through
Aikman on the half hour mark. The 'Bairns' then piled on the pressure for the remainder of
the first half and most of the second, but the Fife defence held out. With ten minutes
left, Davie Duncan collected the ball near the left corner flag and sent in an inswinging
lob which sneaked in at the far post and, two minutes from the end, completed his hat
trick to make the final score 4-1 for East Fife. This was the first and so far the only
time that the League Cup was won by a Second Division side - a remarkable feat which East
Fife had previously matched by winning the Scottish Cup as a Second Division side in 1938!
The East Fife team for both matches was: Niven; Laird, Stewart; Philp, Finlay, Aitken; Adams, D.Davidson, Morris, J.Davidson and Duncan
Below: Davie Duncan, scorer of three of the East Fife goals in the League Cup Final replay on 1 November 1947
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