East Fife 3-0 Peterhead

East Fife got their first three points of the season at the fifth time of asking, hitting a treble after the break.

To be fair, the margin of the win was perhaps a bit cruel on Saturday's visitors who had impressed during the first 45 in particular, hitting the woodwork three times.

But East Fife were a different proposition after the interval and goals from Kevin Smith, Connor McManus and Danny Denholm got them up and running for the campaign.

Methil boss Darren Young was delighted with his side’s showing.

He said: “I thought we were brilliant.

“We had to dig in during the first half and had spoken before the game about getting clean sheets and being hard to beat.

“Scott Gallacher had a great save which he put onto the post and then they hit the bar as well but, defensively, I thought we looked pretty solid.

“That was from front to back because we’d asked Kevin Smith and Jamie Semple to put in a shift for us and they did that brilliantly.”

The Blue Toon settled into the game well and looked the most likely to open the scoring during the early stages.

Scott Brown’s terrific run down the left wing ended with him getting a cross in which only lacked a finish.

They stayed on the front foot and the hosts had goalie Scott Gallacher to thank when he got down brilliantly to tip a Niah Payne drive onto the post.

Minutes after this the visitors hit both the post again and the bar as they kept East Fife penned in.

But the Fifers defended brilliantly and went in at the break with the scoreline even.

They were much improved after the interval and really put Peterhead to the sword.

The second half was only seconds old when they took the lead.

A looping cross wasn’t cleared by the Peterhead defence and the ball broke kindly for the impressive Jamie Semple.

He picked out strike partner Kevin Smith at the back post, the club skipper finding the net from close range.

The roar around Bayview was the loudest heard in some time, in part probably through the relief that a first win was now in sight.

But there was plenty of football still to be played and nobody has anything given to them for free by Peterhead.

They battled for a goal as they tried to get back into the game and avoid being sent to the foot of League One by their hosts.

The second goal was always going to be crucial, and it went the way of East Fife.

Semple was again proving a handful and hard to handle for the Peterhead defence.

When the ball broke for him inside the area he was toppled to the ground by Jason Brown.

It was a stonewaller and McManus was as cool as you like from the spot.

East Fife now just had to see out the win, but things got even better when Andrew Osei-Bonsu skinned his man before crossing for Danny Denholm to net.