Forfar Athletic leapfrogged Stenhousemuir into fifth place in league one with another great display.
Hot on the heels of their New Year derby demolition of Brechin, Forfar swept aside Stenny with some silky soccer.
The Loons cruised to a three-nil lead at the interval and, although they didn’t extend their tally, the Forfar management duo of Dick and Ian Campbell were delighted with all aspects of their side’s showing.
“I thought we were tremendous today,” assistant manager Ian Campbell said.
“Perhaps you could argue that we could have scored more in the second half but there is always the likelihood that the second half will drop a wee bit.
“The work effort and organisation from us was superb. It gave us the scope to have a lot of excellent individual performances.”
Forfar certainly had star turns to enjoy from two of those returning players, Gavin Swankie, who marked his return from a long lay off with the game’s first goal, and Odmar Faero, who was man of the match.
“We looked so sharp today and their was a great hunger about us. We were tight all over the pitch and didn’t really give Stenhousemuir an opening.”
Brother Dick summed up his feelings in just one word, “delighted”, a sentiment surely matched by all the Forfar fans in the 481-strong crowd that watched their side dominate almost from the word go.
The Loons enjoyed the perfect start when they took the lead after four minutes.
Swankie marked his comeback with a brilliant goal well struck from 20 yards and drilled low into the bottom left-hand corner of the net, despite keeper Chris Smith’s full-length dive.
Forfar doubled their lead in the 26th minute and Stenny were left with a mountain to climb as Ross McMillan was shown a straight red card for chopping down Omar Kader as he was about to pull the trigger 10 yards out.
Martyn Fotheringham made no mistake from the penalty spot.
Darren Dods saw a point-blank shot well saved by Smith, then Chris Templeman also saw a close-range effort saved as Forfar dominated the half.
A third was added in the 38th minute, Fotheringham finishing neatly from eight yards after Gary Fusco clipped a lovely ball over the defence to his unmarked team-mate.
Stenny’s best chance fell to Sean Lynch midway through the second half but his top-corner curler was theatrically turned over by Rab Douglas.
Further chances fell to Swankie and Dale Hilson and Fotheringham was inches away from securing his hat trick but Forfar could not extend their lead.
The three goals were more than enough, however, to ensure they sit above Stenny on goal difference.