A second-half salvo by League One powerhouse Rangers swept East Fife to one side at Bayview.
The home side deserved to take enormous credit for keeping the runaway league leaders largely quiet up until a 20-minute spell in the second half when a Gary Thom own goal was added to by a quick-fire hat-trick from John Daly.
Methil boss Willie Aitchison said his side had done all he asked of them until the second-half implosion.
He said: “In the first half we did everything that we needed to. The boys kept their discipline the same as last week, except we lost a wee sloppy goal last week.
“Rangers are a big team and we handled them very well and were happy at half time. But we emphasised to them that if they switch off for two minutes then something will happen, and then we lost our first goal.
“I wasn’t too worried about that, or even the second goal. It was the 10 minutes after that that were a bit worrying.”
With the Bayview capacity extended to allow an extra 3,500 away supporters to fill terracing around the park, there was a real crackle and sense of occasion before kick-off.
But the Fifers were in no mood to simply be part of some gala attraction, and set out to stifle their visitors.
Having lost a goal after just a couple of minutes at Ibrox earlier in the season, the Methil men threw everything into protecting their goal.
Joe Mbu and Thom in particular were outstanding at the back, limiting the Gers to nothing more than half chances at goal. Nicky Clark fired wide before a header from Arnold Peralta was held by Greg Paterson.
However, the Fifers didn’t really pose much of a threat up front, with only a Liam Buchanan long-range drive of note during the opening 45.
The match changed in the second half when Lee Wallace’s wicked cross needed to be cleared by Thom. Agonisingly for the Fife defender his touch sent the ball past Paterson and into the East Fife goal.
From there the Gers quickly put the game to bed. Daly netted his first with a routine header, and it was hard not to fear the worst for the Fifers.
The former Dundee United striker then added his second, and his side’s third with a fine looping header of real quality. Daly completed his hat-trick when he tapped home a Lewis MacLeod cross.
East Fife pushed for a consolation goal, which they almost got through Scott McBride, but Rangers ran out comfortable winners.
Reflecting on the victory, Daly said: “The manager just told us he wanted more at half time. We knew ourselves our first-half performance wasn’t up to the standards we had set ourselves.
“So it’s up to us to make sure we come out and start games better than we have being doing. But we didn’t concede in the first half when we weren’t at our best and give them something to hang on to.”