Stenhousemuir's Premier Sports Cup group stage ends in 4-1 defeat to Dunfermline

The Championship side booked their place in the knockout stages of the competition with the win while the Warriors now turn their full attention to the upcoming League 2 season which kicks off this weekend.

Craig Wighton opened the scoring for the hosts on 13 minutes when he was played in one-on-one with David Wilson and chipped the ball over the Stenny keeper.

Kevin O’Hara made it 2-0 on 34 minutes when the former Warriors’ loanee capitalised on a defensive mix up by the visitors and Wighton got his second and the Pars third just a minute before the break to give them a healthy lead.

Stenny made a number of half time substitutions but O’Hara made it 4-0 shortly after the break to realistically put the game beyond the League 2 side.

A few more changes followed for the visitors who were then able to pull a goal back as substitutes James Lyon and Robert Thomson combined for the latter to get on the score sheet.

Speaking after the match, Stenhousemuir manager Stephen Swift said: “It was a really tough game and I though they (Dunfermline) were excellent.

"We tried to set up in a certain way but we couldn’t quite get to grips with there right and left centre backs pushing out.

"We didn’t quite get our press right and they took their chances well.

"From our point of view we were 3-0 down and I asked the boy to not lose the second half and have a bit of character.

"Over the piece I think everybody played a part but we had a 45 minutes where we weren’t on it, our quality and work rate wasn’t there and we paid the price.

"Over the piece of this group their have been real testing times against really good teams and, apart from 45 minutes today, I’m really pleased.

"We have to look at the bigger picture, this cup isn’t our fight to win, we drew a really tough group and our real work starts on Saturday against Stirling Albion.”