East Fife 3-0 Forfar Athletic

From the moment Chris Duggan lashed the side into a lead within the first five minutes there was no looking back and no real threat their advantage would be pegged back.

It was a win which left the Methil men lurking just outside the promotion play-off zone and only a point off second place.

Sadly the same couldn't be said about Saturday's visitors, with Forfar looking doomed for a long hard slog to beat the drop.

And when Duggan netted the first of East Fife's three goals, the odds would have been on managerless Forfar capitulating completely and being on the wrong end of a cricket score.

So it's credit to them for the way they responded to the opening goal, and Josh Peters was unlucky not to find the net with a double chance which saw Mark Hurst save the first and the scrambling Fife defence block his rebound.

East Fife weathered that particular min-storm when Forfar had threatened to make a game of it and went on to flex their muscles.

Their lead was stretched when Darren Whyte clattered into Aaron Dunsmore inside the area.

The penalty was slammed home by Docherty.

Forfar's claim to get back into the game took a hefty dunt at the start of the second half when Michael Kennedy picked up his second booking of the match and headed down the tunnel early.

East Fife made their numerical advantage count and scored a third when Docherty again found the net from the spot following David Cox's handball.

Fife boss Darren Young said:

“I’m delighted, it was a great performance from start to finish.

“We only had a bad wee 5-10 minute spell in the first half after making a great start which was something we’d work on during the week in training.

“It was great for Chris Duggan to get his goal."