East Fife 1-4 Bonnyrigg Rose: Boss Dick Campbell left frustrated as League Two play-off hopes fade

Veteran Alan Trouten – recently named as March’s League Two player of the month – got the Fifers off to a flying start, heading home Liam Newton’s smart cross in the box after just eight minutes.

But in truth, it was the visitors who had made the better start at Bayview and they quickly levelled things up five minutes later when Neil Martyniuk lathed onto Lee Currie’s deep cross.

Ross Gray soon had Calum Elliot’s side ahead when he smartly finished past Allan Fleming to turn the game on its head.

And Bradley Barrett then slotted home on the rebound to give Bonnyrigg a two-goal advantage going into the break.

In the second half, East Fife couldn’t claw their way back into proceedings and Kerr Young made sure of the three points for the Midlothian visitors with 15 minutes to go when he headed home from a Currie corner kick.

“You learn more after games and results like that,” manager of the month for March Campbell told East Fife TV. “I get angered easily. I didn’t think we ever got out of the boxes from start to finish today.

"We went a goal up against the run of play. They had three chances before we scored. After that it was constant waves of attack and they adapted to the conditions way better than us.

"Even in the second half, we did not create anything at all. Playing in front of our home fans, here at East Fife, you need to do better than that."

He added: “The biggest power I have is the power of selection. I saw things today that I will attend to going forward, that’s for sure.

"We need to attract good players to this football club by having good standards. The players let the home fans down.

"That’s my first defeat since coming and I saw this coming. We didn’t have to win today to stay in the league and Bonnyrigg did.

"The players know how I feel. The 4-1 scoreline could have been more. I am very sorry to the home fans.”