If Cowdenbeath are to avoid two consecutive relegations the Central Park outfit will require to up their game considerably on the evidence of this showing.
The final scoreline does nothing to indicate Stenny’s almost complete domination of the match and but for sloppy finishing and some kamikaze defending of their own, the final outcome could well have been embarrassing.
“Stenhousemuir went for it from the start and deserved their win,” the Fifer’s player-manager Colin Nish said after full time,
“We were a bit better in the second half, but our defending at times was terrible and it was just not good enough.”
Nish signed Ali El Zubaidi the previous day from Hamilton and if anything can be taken from the match it was the defender’s debut goal after 54 minute that gave the visitors a brief glimmer of hope.
The Warriors were already three up by that point thanks to Colin McMenamin, Liam Henderson and Alan Smith and the reduction was short-lived when five minutes later Alan Cook hit Muir’s fourth.
Stenny passed up numerous chances to put the game to bed before Greig Spence pulled one back in 62 minutes.
The striker took advantage of horrendous defending to round keeper Jamie Barclay and pop into the empty net, but the contest was well over before John Armstrong was given a red card with 13 minutes remaining for a foul on McMenamin.