East Fife 2-0 Stenhousemuir

From the first whistle the Methil men were by far the better team, the only down side being that it took until the second half to get the goal their dominance deserved.

In the end, though, Scott Agnew's brace was enough to get the club's Betfred Cup campaign kick started ahead of tough games against Dundee United and Hearts.

East Fife needed to give a positive response after the 2-0 defeat to Cowden, and they did just that.

They started well and Anton Dowds went close to opening the scoring after a couple of minutes but he couldn't turn Chris Duggan's delivery towards goal.

The home side stayed on the front foot with Danny Denholm and Pat Slattery going close.

It took Stenny half an hour to ask any sort of question of East Fife but the home defence coped with Mark McGuigan's close range effort.

As long as the game stayed 0-0, there was always a chance Stenny could snatch a goal out of the blue.

It was crucial East Fife managed to get their noses in front, and they did that on the 56th minute.

Denholm caused problems for the visitors all afternoon and he was in the thick of things when he picked out Agnew on the edge of the box.

The midfielder got the ball out from under his feet brilliantly, and curled a fine effort beyond Graeme Smith.

The goal served to wake Stenny from their long slumber, and they enjoyed their best spell of the game.

McGuigan hit the post and sub Mark Munro flashed a shot wide.

But nerves were settled with five minutes to go when the hosts scored a second.

Aaron Dunsmore rampaged into the box and was brought down by David Marsh.

It was a certain penalty and up stepped Agnew to rattle home the winner.

Boss Darren Young said: "We dominated the game and could have had a couple in the first half.

"There were some bits of play and some good build up.

"We got a clean sheet into the bargain as well.

"The defence was outstanding."