Aberdeen beat East Fife in a six goal thriller at New Bayview this afternoon.
The Dons raced into a two-goal lead in the first half before East Fife hit back early in the second half with two goals of their own. However, a double from substitute Jayden Stockley gave Aberdeen victory in a game which they dominated.
There was less than three minutes on the clock when the Dons broke the deadlock.
Ryan Jack pushed forward and with no East Fife player closing him down the Aberdeen captain picked out attacker Adam Rooney with a perfectly timed cross and the forward glanced a header past East Fife goalkeeper Willie Muir to put the Dons in front.
The Dons extended their lead before the interval when Frank Ross’ corner was headed into the top corner by Anthony O’Connor for his first goal in a red shirt.
The Dons made four changes for the second half and one of them, attacker Jayden Stockley, almost made an immediate impact but he headed Jack’s cross wide of substitute East Fife goalkeeper Ryan Goodfellow.
But East Fife pulled a goal back minutes later when Dons captain Jack scored an own goal, heading the ball past goalkeeper Neil Alexander while trying to cut out Mark Lamont’s cross.
Remarkably, it went from bad to worse for the Dons when East Fife were awarded a penalty following a clumsy challenge by O’Connor on East Fife midfielder Kevin Smith. Paul McManus sent Alexander the wrong way with the spot kick.
The response from the visitors was swift with O’Connor making it to the byeline before crossing the ball into the box where Stockley rose to head the ball past Goodfellow, who got a hand to the attacker’s effort but could not keep it out.
Stockley struck the crossbar with an overhead kick as the Dons pushed for a fourth and he eventually delivered it with a looping header over Goodfellow.
