FORMER Scotland striker Stevie Crawford has taken over as caretaker manager of East Fife after Dave Baikie resigned his post at the Bayview club yesterday.
It is only 12 months since Baikie led East Fife to the Third Division, but his side failed to make an impression on the Second Division promotion race this season despite heavy spending on strengthening the Methil club's first team squad last summe
r. The Fifers have won only one of their last eight league games, against doomed Stranraer.
Baikie has been in charge at the Fife club for three years and his resignation comes just a week after Willie Gray was replaced as chairman by chief executive Sid Collumbine. It is believed Gray is now set to quit the board of directors after a difference of opinion, ending what has been an eventful period under his stewardship.
Baikie was previously manager at Arbroath, Cowdenbeath and junior side Tayport. He said after his side lost 3-1 to Queen's Park on Saturday: "The rest of the season is in a twilight zone, as we have nothing to play for."
Crawford, 35, takes charge with four league games remaining this season and will have a chance to stake a claim on the job. The position is bound to attract a lot of interest, with the Fifers offering one of the strongest squads in the Second Division, but new chairman Collumbine is said to be keen on former Linlithgow Rose managerial duo of Brian Fairley and Allan McGonigal. Fairley was manager of Stenhousemuir and Dumbarton when Collumbine was a director of those clubs, and McGonigal was assistant to Fairley at both clubs.
