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A screamer of a strike from defender Morgyn Neill sent us on the road to a thrilling and well deserved cinch League One victory at the Falkirk Stadium.

Rory McAllister then claimed his 13th goal of the campaign to ensure we had the three points as good as secured before the interval.

Substitute Leighton McIntosh provided the icing on the cake by lobbing home our third, in the final minute, as we swept aside our full-time hosts in impressive style.

An almost perfect afternoon was spoiled when Shay Logan was shown a red card in injury-time, because one of the match officials apparently claimed they saw the full-back making an unacceptable gesture towards the home crowd.

But even that couldn’t take the shine off what was the latest in a series of outstanding team performances as we made it seven without defeat in the league and maintained our lead over Montrose at the top of the table.

Some of the faces in the crowd will have looked strangely familiar to manager Paul Hartley.

That’s because a group of Cove Rangers supporters were wearing masks bearing his image for the clash against one of his former clubs.

They also made their voices heard and were rewarded with a Cove performance that was a treat to the eyes.

In fairness to The Bairns, they were the more threatening side in the early stages.

Callumn Morrison shot wide from 18-yards after just four minutes and that was followed by keeper Stuart McKenzie holding a long range effort by Seb Ross.

Aiden Keena got forward in the 17th minute, but McKenzie was well positioned to save his 20-yard effort at goal.

We went ahead in the 19th minute with our first effort on target – and what an effort it was.

NEILL collected the ball fully 35-yards out from the Falkirk goal and he then gave home keeper Paddy Martin no chance with a stunning drive that flew into the top corner, to the keeper’s right.

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We almost built on that when Iain Vigurs played a free-kick short to Fraser Fyvie, wide on the left.

The midfielder’s shot, from 10-yards, was going in until the ball hit Nesbitt and went behind for a corner.

McAllister also saw a close range header held by Martin as we stepped up the pace.

Neill was the hero in our defensive area in the 33rd minute.

Keena looked certain to score after breaking into our penalty area, on the right, but was denied by an outstanding last gasp challenge from Neill at the edge of the six yard box.

The value of that interception was underlined when we made it 2-0 in the 38th minute.

Our first had been spectacular, the second was simply sublime.

Harry Milne played the ball on from the left to Mitch Megginson, who then laid the ball perfectly into the path of McALLISTER.

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The veteran striker finished things off in style by controlling the ball with his chest then lashing it into the roof of the net from eight yards.

Connor Scully was unlucky not to score our third, a couple of minutes after the restart, with a powerful 18-yard shot that was defected just wide of Martin’s right post by a home defender.

Megginson then won the ball just inside the Falkirk half and advanced to hit a 20-yard shot that was held by Martin.

Martin made two top class saves to keep us out in the 70th minute.

The first was a brilliant block from McAllister’s eight yard shot and the keeper also recovered quickly to touch Scully’s diving header from the rebound wide of his right post.

McKenzie showed his class as a keeper at the other end, in the 75th minute.

He did very well to reach Keene’s spectacular effort from 30-yards and push the ball up into the air.

The ball looked to still be dropping in, but McKenzie also managed to back-track quickly to grab hold of it inside his six yard box.

Cove underlined their total superiority in the last minute when Megginson played the ball through to McINTOSH and he gave the advancing Martin no chance with a perfectly executed lob from 20-yards.

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The match ended with most of the people inside the stadium mystified to see Logan shown a red card, because one of the referee’s assistants had allegedly seen him make a hand gesture towards the section of the Main Stand occupied by Falkirk supporters.

Logan seemed to claim he had held up three fingers to indicate the 3-0 scoreline, but referee Calum Scott stuck to his guns to ensure an unwanted end to an otherwise memorable trip to the Falkirk Stadium for those mask-wearing Cove Rangers supporters.

FALKIRK: Martin, Williamson (Ruth 67), Hall, Miller, Morrison, Nesbitt, McCann (McGuffie 75), Ross (Ompreon 55), Keena, Telfer, McKay.

Subs: Holt, Krasniqi, Lemon, McDaid.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Neill, Milne, Scully, Ross, Yule, Megginson, McAllister (McIntosh 78), Vigurs, Fyvie, Logan.

Subs: Masson, Anderson, Adeyemo, Robertson, Gourlay.

Referee: Calum Scott.

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