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RORY McAllister made the most of his first League One start of the campaign as we turned on the style to record an emphatic victory over Forfar Athletic.

Rory opened the scoring inside the first four minutes and also had a hand in our other two strikes – claimed by skipper Mitch Megginson – in a game we controlled from start to finish.

It was a highly impressive way to make it four wins out of four in our first season in League One – and maintain our astonishing unbeaten league run at Balmoral Stadium since making the step up into the SPFL.

Paul Hartley and keeper Stuart McKenzie received a pre-match boost when it was announced they had won the SPFL League One Manager and Player of the Month awards for October.

Long serving Stuart was a virtual spectator in a one-sided affair that included us raining 19 shots in on the Forfar goal over the course of the 90 minutes.

We had made two changes to the side that beat Partick Thistle 1-0 seven days before.

Centre-back Ross Graham, who is on loan from Dundee United, came in for the injured Daniel Higgins.

McAllister’s reward for scoring the late winner against Partick was coming in for Adam Livingstone, who was on the bench.

Forfar’s starting side included striker John Robertson, who spent part of last season on loan to us from St Johnstone, with another former Cove man, Chris Antoniazzi, among their substitutes.

McALLISTER justified his inclusion by opening the scoring with only three and a half minutes on the clock.

The goal came after some slick passing down the left, involving Jamie Masson and Megginson, who squared the ball to strike partner McAllister and his 16-yard shot was deflected beyond Forfar keeper Daniel Hoban into the net.

Forfar were forced to make a change after only eight minutes when Steven Doris suffered a hamstring injury. He was replaced by Cameron Breadner.

We would have gone two up in the 13th minute had McAllister not got in the way of Connor Scully’s net bound 14 yard shot.

Masson and Megginson then switched passes again in another impressive move down the left.

Midfielder Masson ended it by cutting into the area to blast a shot wide of the front post when a pass across the face of the Forfar goal might have been the better option

Forfar threatened in the 22nd minute when Ross Meechan sent a long ball up to Robertson but he fired his shot from the edge of the Cove area wide of the target.

We swept forward again for Harry Milne to send in a cross from the left that Leighton McIntosh scooped over the bar from eight yards.

Milne was only inches away from making it 2-0 after 33 minutes.

The left-back showed great skill to turn on the ball and create space for a chip that went just outside Hoban’s left post.

Megginson was just as close with a spectacular 35 yard volley that sped wide, after the skipper had latched on to a knock down from McAllister.

Milne then fired another fine cross over from the left and McIntosh was unlucky to see his shot bounce down on to the pitch then hit the top of the Forfar crossbar and go behind for a goal kick.

Our second came from a correctly awarded penalty in the 43rd minute, for a clumsy challenge by Murray MacKintosh on Megginson, after he pounced on a clever lay-off from McAllister.

Club captain MEGGINSON took the kick and calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net for his fifth goal of the campaign.

It was more of the same in the second half.

McAllister blasted a 20 yard shot just wide of Hoban’s left post two minutes after the restart.

Milne was much further wide a couple of minutes later as we kept up the pressure.

McAllister was clearly hungry for his second and he tested Hoban with a low 18 yard shot after exchanging passes with Megginson as their strike partnership caused the Forfar defence nightmares.

Sam Fisher broke forward to have a go for Forfar but there was never any danger of his long range effort troubling McKenzie.

Breadner then cut in from the left, past Scott Ross, but McKenzie was well placed to save the youngster’s 14 yard shot.

It was all us after that though.

The excellent Blair Yule started our next attack, which ended with Hoban just managing to push Megginson’s deflected shot over his crossbar.

Our third goal finally arrived in the 61st minute and it was a cracker.

Yule played the ball low forward to McAllister and he laid it off perfectly for MEGGINSON to stroke home from eight yards.

Scott Ross then had a great chance to score after Conor Scully’s top drawer pass sent him clear on the right but he chose to cross instead of having a go and the ball was cleared.

We had other opportunities to increase our lead – Masson saw a shot curl wide and McIntosh also went close from the edge of the area and saw another effort saved by Hoban – but we had done more than enough to earn the win that keeps us top of League One.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Scott Ross, Graham, Strachan, Milne, Scully, Yule, Masson, McAllister (Watson 76), Megginson, McIntosh.

Subs: Livingstone, Semple, Seb Ross, Ritchie, Brown, Demus.

FORFAR ATHLETIC: Hoban, MacKintosh, MacKenzie, Irvine, Fisher, Meechan, Shepherd, Barr, Doris (Breadner 8), Allan (Antoniazzi 67), Robertson.

Subs: Coll, Thomas,, Starrs, Dalling, Hill, Diamond.

Referee: Scott Lambie

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