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Manager Paul Hartley, defender Harry Milne and captain Mitch Megginson spoke to the media after our 5-2 cinch League One victory over East Fife at Balmoral Stadium.

Mitch netted a hat-trick as Cove Rangers secured their first league victory of the campaign.

Paul said: “Our season starts now.

“It’s been a slow start for us, but this was much more like us, in an attacking sense.

“I’m really pleased with the result, we scored some really good goals.

“We changed the shape, playing with a diamond in the middle of the pitch, and also changed some personnel and it worked perfectly for us.

“There was some really good play and counter attacks.

“Mitch did well to get his hat-trick, but he knows he needs people to supply the ball to him, and we certainly did that.

“A big part of our game is the full-backs getting forward to link up the play and we managed to do that.

“We got into some good areas to put some excellent balls into the box to create plenty of chances.

“I wasn’t pleased with the goals we lost, I just felt we were loose with our defending at times, they certainly didn’t have to work hard for their goals.

“It was great to get five goals, but you’ve got to try and get clean sheets as well.

“We have another test ahead of us next weekend, away from home to Dumbarton.

“There’s no easy games in this league and the players know they are going to have to work very hard again to get the result we want.”

Mitch said: “We had to get three points on the board, especially when we were at home, so it’s great we did that.

“We went about our business correctly and deserved to win.

“Everyone worked hard, and I was pleased to score a hat-trick, although when you have the sort of quality we have around you it makes life easy for the likes of myself.”

Mitch admitted he enjoyed playing alongside Rory McAllister, who set up two of his goals and also netted, from the penalty spot.

Mitch said: “Opposites attract, the way we play suits each of our styles.”

Harry said: “We were really good going forward, we created a lot of chances and could have scored more.

“They were stupid goals to concede though, which we aren’t happy about.

“The penalty was obviously down to me. I though he went down a bit easy, but I shouldn’t have given the ref any option to give it.

“The second was just really sloppy, how he gets in there.

“But it was good to get off the mark and we played some pretty entertaining football for the fans who were in the stadium.”

Paul and Mitch were delighted to see midfielder Jamie Masson come off the bench for his first appearance since suffering an ankle injury back in April.

Paul said: “I’m really pleased for him, he had been a long time out with what was a bad injury.”

Mitch said: “Jamie has put a shift in to get his fitness levels back up and has looked good in training.

“He got his reward by getting minutes and looked great when he came on.”

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