Falkirk 3-1 East Fife - in pictures

In fact, that the three points remained with the home side was an injustice in itself.

Stevie Crawford’s side dominated large periods of this game as they controlled proceedings against their promotion chasing hosts at the Falkirk Stadium.

If any team looked likely to win the match in the closing stages of the second-half it was the Methil men.

That was until the hosts hit twice in the closing minutes to turn things on their head.

In Leigh Griffiths Falkirk have a matchwinner and the Scotland international had a huge say in the conclusion of the match.

The hosts started the game well and took a deserved lead when Craig McGuffie picked the ball up on the edge of the East Fife box.

The visiting defence didn’t get out quick enough to close him down and McGuffie punished them by bending his finish beyond Jude Smith.

But East Fife responded brilliantly and were soon right back in the match.

They pulled level when Darren Watson’s pinpoint cross looped over the Falkirk defence and into the path of Ryan Wallace who sent his finish high beyond Robbie Mutch.

From there it was the visitors who dominated the match and they were unlucky not to go 2-1 ahead when Danny Denholm's drive came back off the crossbar.

Wallace was the next to go close with a lob which dropped a foot wide of the post.

East Fife were dominating but unable to find another way past Mutch.

Crawford introduced attacking subs in a bid to win the game, sensing the three points were there for the taking.

But there was a to be a sting in the tail for the Fifers.

With the game starting to peter out, a Griffiths corner found Paul Watson who headed beyond Smith.

It was a real suckerpunch for East Fife and further salt was rubbed into the wounds when Griffiths netted a stoppage time penalty.

Sadly it was a defeat which opened up a seven point gap between the Fifers and ninth placed Dumbarton.

With nine games of the campaign still to go, though, there will be no throwing in of the towel at Bayview just yet.

“We’ve come to the Falkirk Stadium and at 1-1 have made substitutions to try and win the game,” said Crawford.

“That’s not being arrogant, it was a belief that, the way the game was going, we were creating opportunities.

“It would have been easy to shut up shop and try to take a point and end up losing the game but that’s not the way I want to go about my business.

“3-1 looks as if we’ve had a sore one but we have to dust ourselves down and put the disappointment behind us and try to get more points on the board next week.

“The boys are bitterly disappointed they’ve lost but they know Falkirk were in a game.

“There’s plenty of fight in me, plenty of fight in the players and the supporters at the game gave us their full backing.

“If they can continue to do that, we’re not going to go down easy between now and the end of the season.”