East Fife 3-2 Elgin City

The Fifers signed off their Betfred Cup campaign with a win.

It's fair to say this was a cliched game of two halves.

The opening 45 saw few chances created with the best of what was made falling the way of the visitors.

Craig Watson cleared a Jordan Allan effort off the line before the Peterhead forward felt he had a clear penalty shout snubbed.

Stephen Bronsky also went close with a header the Fife defence managed to scramble away.

The first half had come and gone without much incident and gave no indication of the drama which was to come after the re-start.

It all kicked off within a couple of minutes when Thomas Reilly's cross deceived the East Fife defence and looped in at the back post.

It was a sloppy goal to ship from an East Fife point of view but, to be fair, was an uncharacteristic mistake.

East Fife weren’t behind for long, though, with Chris Duggan hauling the Methil men level.

Mark Docherty’s cross was inch perfect for the striker who brought the ball down, composed himself and slotted past Mark Waters.

The equaliser was the shot in the arm the home side needed and the floodgates opened.

Matthew Cooper tripped Pat Slattery inside the box and ref Scott Millar pointed straight to the spot.

Docherty stepped up and thumped his spot kick well beyond the Elgin goalie.

The game took yet another twist when Reilly pulled Elgin level again with a strike from close range.

But East Fife completed the scoring and put the footnote on a stunning second half when a neat, flowing move forward was finished off at the back post by Paul Willis.

This weekend East Fife host St Johnstone in a friendly with a noon kick off.

Seven days later the League One campaign begins with a trip to Stranraer.

Methil boss Darren Young said: “The team is still gelling together and again we were right down the bare bones.

“We’ve had to chop and change through pre-season and the cup campaign has been the same.

“We’re missing eight players which is a lot but the boys we had out there did themselves proud and have given me food for thought.”

East Fife - Goodfellow, Dunsmore, Docherty, Watson, Slattery, Duggan, Wilson, Millar, Flanagan (Inglis 89), Reilly (Wilkie 77), Willis.

Subs - Young.

Elgin City - Waters, Cooper, Smith, McHardy, Bronsky, McGovern, Dodd (Reid 62), Cameron, Allan (McKinnon 83), Reilly, Sutherland (McLeish 75).

Subs - Dear, Eadie, Wilson.