Division Three leaders East Fife had to rely on a penalty save and a second-half equaliser to protect their unbeaten record in a 1-1 draw against Stirling Albion.

Stirling opened the scoring in the 15th minute when Stevie Nicholas slammed home from close range.

The league leaders were then stunned after Paul Mortimer was adjudged to have handled in the box but Steve Mallan's penalty was saved by Jim Butter.

East Fife were level on the hour mark when Gordon Love's cross was powerfully headed in by Kenny Deuchar.

Gretna took three gift-wrapped points at East Stirling with a 4-0 win.

The first goal arrived in the 57th minute Bill Struthers was hopelessly short with a back pass, allowing Mark Dobie to shoot straight at keeper Scott Findlay, and the rebound was fired in by Matthew Henney.

Two minutes later Dobie ran through and while his shot was again saved, Alex Benjamin was on hand to tap in the loose ball.

Steven Skinne grabbed the third with Craig Reid rounding the goalkeeper to fire into an empty net and complete the rout.

The Albion Rovers promotion bandwagon was temporarily halted as Elgin City, whose goalkeeper Martin Perrie saved a first-half penalty, grabbed a 1-1 draw.

Rovers missed their penalty in the 24th minute and even worse followed when they fell behind to a simple 52nd-minute Ryan McMullan goal.

Following a series of dangerous free-kicks the home side drew level when Charles McLean met a Jered Stirling cross to blast the equaliser in the 72nd minute.

Morton recorded an impressive 5-2 win at Montrose.

It was the home side who took the lead on seven minutes when Steve Kerrigan headed home at the back post, but Morton equalised four minutes later when Stuart MacDonald shot home.

Warren Hawke put them 2-1 up in the 24th minute with a diving header.

The visitors hit two goals in the first two minutes of the second half to win the game, the first coming from Jani Uotinen and the second from Marco Maisano.

Montrose kept battling, though, and got a second goal in the 62nd minute through Chris Webster, but Uotinen completed the rout with his second and Morton's fifth with 15 minutes to go.

Peterhead made it three straight wins courtesy of an Iain Stewart hat-trick in a 3-0 victory over Queens Park.

The Blue Toon went in front in the third minute with Stewart's first, a close-range effort.

They had to wait until 12 minutes before time to seal the win, Kevin Bain volleyeing goalward following a corner and Stewart deflecting the ball into the net.

The hat-trick was comlpleted when Stewart dived in at the back post to head home a right-wing cross from substitute Craig Cooper.