Stenhousemuir 3 East Fife 1: Warriors not giving up the fight

Brown Ferguson’s side were well worthy of a win which gave their safety chances a massive shot in the arm.

It was a win they more than deserved, largely dominating the promotion chasing Methil men.

East Fife were unlucky not to open the scoring with barely five minutes on the clock.

A neat move forward saw Ross Brown play in Kieran Duffie down the right.

Stenny broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time when the Fifers couldn’t clear their lines and the ball broke kindly for the impressive Willis Furtado eight yards from goal.

The winger took his time before lashing past Mark Hurst.

Bayview boss Smith brought on striker Jordan Austin at the break to add an extra attacking impetus and it didn’t take long to pay off.

East Fife got level when a Paterson corner couldn’t be cleared by Stenny and Chris Kane was the first to react and bundle the ball across the line.

But they weren’t level for long, with the Warriors again getting their noses in front a few minutes later.

With the hosts on the attack, Austin rashly lunged in on David Marsh and clattered the defender to the ground.

There was little complaint about the penalty awarded.

Colin McMenamin stepped up and, although his tame shot was stopped by Hurst, the loose ball spun back up and over the Fife ‘keeper.

The Fifers should have had a penalty of their own when Jesse Curran was tugged inside the Stenny area just as he was steadying himself to get a shot away.

It was a clear foul but this time ref John McKendrick wasn’t as interested.

The points were wrapped up by Stenny 10 minutes before full time when Furtado netted a third.