Ross Millen's early red card left John Potter's team with an uphill struggle in a match they had to win to maintain their slim chance of a play-off place, but two goals from Alan Trouten and a strike from Andy Jackson put that issue to bed.

It has been a woeful campaign for the Pars and there is no disguising that they simply haven't been good enough throughout, particularly against the sides pushing for places in the Championship.

Despite netting the winner from the bench against Stranraer, Faissal El Bakhtaoui remained on the sidelines as Potter named an unchanged side and in truth there was little to choose between the sides until the 13th minute.

An off the ball incident resulted in a red card for Millen, who was alleged to have elbowed Trouten on the edge of the Pars box, and just 12 minutes later Dunfermline were behind.

Trouten, an impressive figure in the City midfield, latched on to a pass on the right and he fired a low shot beyond the despairing Scully and into the bottom right corner of the net.

It quickly got worse as with only 29 minutes on the clock, the game was effectively over when Scully was did well to save Jamie Masson's shot but as he couldn't hold on to the ball, Trouten netted from close range for his and Brechin's second.

Dunfermline struggled to create any clear cut opportunities until the introduction of El Bakhtaoui in the second half, but the game was up in the 65th minute as Brechin added a third through Jackson.

El Bakhtaoui was unfortunate to see an effort bounce off the post before teeing up Andy Geggan for a shot that was well saved by Graeme Smith, but it was too little too late as the travelling fans were forced to contemplate another season in the third tier.

Pars: Scully, Millen, Whittle, Martin, Buchanan, Geggan, Byrne, Graham, Moffat, Smith, Thomson.

Subs: Falkingham, Hopkirk, El Bakhtaoui, McAusland, O'Kane, Barrowman, Wilson.