East Fife 4, Kilmarnock 2

A DOUBLE strike by skipper Willie Brown earned a morale-boosting two

points for East Fife and inflicted another away defeat on Kilmarnock,

who have not won on any rival team's ground for three months.

Kilmarnock took the lead in six minutes when Willie Watters netted

after he had been put through by Tommy Burns. But East Fife equalised

just four minutes later when Ally Mitchell drove low past keeper Alan

McCulloch after the Killie defence had failed to clear a looping cross.

East Fife took the lead four minutes into the second half with a well

executed turn and shot by Brown, and the captain scored again in 64

minutes, heading home from a Paul Taylor cross.

Eight minutes from time Burns pulled one back, but Paul Hunter headed

the fourth for the Fifers in the last minute.

East Stirlingshire 2, Brechin City 0

'SHIRE completely outplayed the visitors and dealt a blow to Brechin's

promotion hopes.

Brechin had hoped to take both points and go to the top of the second

division above Stirling Albion, but instead East Stirling lifted

themselves off bottom place in the table.

A strong wing spoiled the game as a spectacle. Brechin had the benefit

of it in the first half but failed to take their chances. They were

punished two minutes from the break, when 'Shire opened the scoring. A

cross from the left was handled by Alex Brash inside the box and John

Workman stepped to slot home the penalty.

With the wind advantage, the home side went further ahead eight

minutes after the interval. A cross from Workman found Billy McNeill

running in, and he headed home with typical power from close range.

East Stirling now dominated the game and Danny Diver had the ball in

the net but the score was disallowed for offside. Bobby Brown of Brechin

was booked for dissent.

Queen of the South 1, Dumbarton 4

DUMBARTON boosted their promotion challenge with a fine 4-1 victory

over Queen of the South at Palmerston. It was only the second home

defeat of the season for Queens, and the first time they have failed to

score at least two goals in a home league game.

Dumbarton were struggling in the early stages but in 27 minutes Gary

Andrews gifted them an opener. He tried to tap the ball back to keeper

Alan Davidson but succeeded only in lofting it over the keeper's arms

into the net.

The Sons started to find holes in Queens' defence and had taken

command by midway in the second half. Stuart McIver chased a ball

towards the byeline and from an almost impossible angle slammed it into

the net via the upright.

Queens hit back within a minute and after Tommy Sloan had struck the

woodwork, Stuart Gordon slammed the rebound into the net.

But Dumbarton soon recovered the initiative, and McIver again eluded

the Dumfries defence to shoot home in 73 minutes. That took McIver, with

13 goals, into second place in the division's scorers table behind

colleague Charlie Gibson, who took his own total to 15 with five minutes

left.