Livingston 0-1 East Fife

Another weekend, another incredibly positive result for East Fife.

Fans of the Methil club are quickly forgetting what it's like to return from the football on a Saturday afternoon with your night ruined by the result.

The club is on a fantastic run of results in the league, but travelled to Livingston for a different challenge.

An away trip the to League One leaders wasn't the greatest cup draw the Fifers could have been handed.

There was no guarantee of either progression or a nice lump sum from gate receipts.

Livi were favourites to make their way into the last 16 of the Scottish Cup, but came up against an East Fife side which clearly fears absolutely nobody right now.

A thick fog threatened a couple of times to disrupt the match with both side emerging for the start of the game hoping it would burn off.

It did, while the Fifers did some burning of their own, as a terrific first half performance scorched the home side's cup dream.

Nicki Paterson looks a real find for the Fifers and he pulled the string in the middle of the park while also posing a goal threat up top.

He handed East Fife the lead in stunning fashion shortly before the half-time break.

Kevin Smith's cross was cut out by the Livi defence but the high clearance fell invitingly for the midfielder who was perched 20 yards out.

Paterson re-jigged his body position and met the dropping ball flush on the volley, giving Liam Kelly in the home goal absolutely no chance.

Livingston are League One leaders for a reason and were always going to pose a threat as they chased the equaliser.

Arguably East Fife's strongest position on the park at the moment is in goals, where Ryan Goodfellow and Mark Hurst battle it out for the gloves.

It was Goodfellow's chance to shine at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

With Livingston pressing, Rafa De Vita's deflected effort on goal looked to be looping past the Fife no 1, but somehow Goodfellow reached back to claw away the goalbound ball.

It was a wonderful save which summed up an afternoon when East Fife showed their real quality at both ends of the park.

Boss Barry Smith said:

“I’m delighted for the boys because of the effort they put into the game.

"We had to defend extremely well in the latter part of the game because Livingston were gambling but our players threw themselves at everything."