The formation of East Fife in 1903 brought the total number of senior clubs in Fife to six, the others being Raith Rovers, Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline Athletic, Lochgelly United and Hearts of Beath. The new club, whose colours were to be green and white, successfully applied for membership of the Scottish Football Association in April of that year. Their application to join the Northern League was rejected, however, and for the first year of East Fife’s existence they would have to be content with playing in the newly formed Fife League, the Wemyss Cup and the Scottish Qualifying Cup, as well as organising challenge matches against other senior clubs of similar standing.

With the basic essentials in place, the East Fife Committee set about the task of raising a team in preparation for their first match against Heart of Midlothian, who agreed to send a side to Methil on 15th August 1903 in return for the princely sum of £15. On a dull and wet afternoon, the Fifers shared the honours with Hearts in a 2-2 draw, both home goals coming from Nangle. Delighted with what he had witnessed during the inaugural match, the reporter from the Leven Advertiser commented:"The result was full value for the play. Considering everything, the new team did splendidly. Take any eleven players, total strangers, and dump them down on a field at the start of a season and they would do no better. Given another match together and we will be prepared to see East Fife meet the County cracks and beat them".

In June 1904, East Fife were rejected by the Northern League for a second time and decided to call a meeting of clubs they thought would be interested in forming a new league for Fife and the Lothians. The clubs who were represented at the meeting; East Fife, Hearts of Beath, Edinburgh Adventurers, Bathgate, Bo’ness, Broxburn, Broxburn Shamrock, Dykehead and West Calder, were all in favour of the new combination and the Eastern League was born.

In May 1905 the Fifers proposed to disband the Eastern League and form a new competition called the Central Football League, which would take its member clubs from the counties of Fife, Clackmannan and the Lothians.

The Northern League, alarmed at the prospect of having to start the new season with only nine clubs after losing certain key members to the new competition, decided to offer membership to East Fife in the hope that their defecting clubs would have a change of heart. The outcome was that East Fife were unanimously elected to the Northern League and, in season 1905/06, would welcome Aberdeen Reserves, Arbroath, Dundee Reserves, Dundee Wanderers, Dunfermline Athletic, Forfar Athletic, Kirkcaldy United, Lochee United, Lochgelly United, Montrose and St. Johnstone to Methil.

At the end of the 1905/06 season, Bayview Park was completely enclosed with a wooden fence and a 400 seat grandstand was built on the north side of the ground. The Fifers now considered themselves worthy of Scottish League membership and duly applied in the summer of 1906, but their application was turned down as bottom clubs Vale of Leven and East Stirlingshire were both re-elected. Just days after the initial rejection, the decision was taken to increase the size of the Scottish League by two clubs and East Fife submitted a second application, but this time Ayr Parkhouse and Dumbarton were successful.

Attendances at Bayview increased during the following season, which prompted a third application for admission to the Scottish League in 1907 season along with Dunfermline Athletic, but the club was yet again unsuccessful.

In April 1908, East Fife won their first ever trophy, the Fife Cup, with a 4-2 victory against Lochgelly United at the neutral venue of North End Park, Cowdenbeath. Although nowadays the Fife Cup is considered to be a minor tournament, back in 1908 it was considered to be a major prize. After being presented with the trophy, team Captain Tommy Fitzpatrick was carried shoulder high by a euphoric band of East Fife supporters, around 500 having made the journey to Cowdenbeath by special train.

As the Fifers were making a name for themselves on the field of play, however, matters off the park were causing concern as the club’s landlord sold off the land around Bayview Park to housing developers. By March 1908 the builders had almost encroached on the football park and, although it was anticipated that the pitch might be saved for one more season, it was widely expected that East Fife would eventually have to re-locate.

Towards the end of season 1908/09, developments elsewhere in the Scottish game signalled the end of the Fifers’ involvement with the Northern League. In March 1909 the Scottish Football Association announced that it was prepared to sanction the formation of a ‘Second XI League’ for the benefit of the Scottish League clubs. As this new league would inevitably mean the withdrawal of Dundee and Aberdeen reserves from the Northern League, the decision was taken by some of its member clubs to form a new competition covering a wider geographical area.

At a meeting held in Dunfermline during March 1909, a new twelve team competition was inaugurated consisting of West Lothian clubs Bathgate, Broxburn Athletic and Bo’ness; Alloa Athletic and King’s Park from the Stirling area and Northern League clubs St. Johnstone, Arbroath, Dunfermline Athletic, Lochgelly United, Kirkcaldy United and East Fife with the twelfth place taken by Cowdenbeath reserves. The Central League, which was destined to have a huge impact on the Scottish game, had been born!

The Fifers, after having discarded their green and white jerseys in favour of navy blue, played their first ever Central League match against St Johnstone at Bayview on 21st August 1909. The first win in the new competition, however, was not recorded until 25 September 1909, when Broxburn Athletic were beaten 4-1 in Methil. What is also significant about this match is that Wilkie’s three goals for the Fifers that day was the first ever hat-trick scored at Bayview Park! Later that same month, the Fifers won the right to play in the Scottish Cup for the first time in their history by beating Aberdeen Harp 3-0 in the third round of the Qualifying Cup.

The club’s first ever Scottish Cup tie was played against Hurlford at Bayview on 15 January 1910, where the Fifers won a place in the last sixteen of the competition with a convincing 4-1 win. The following round saw the Fifers drawn at home against Queen’s Park, who at the time fielded a host of well known players including the famous Scottish internationalist R.S. McColl. Despite a brave performance from the Methil men, the Spiders ended the Fifers interest in the competition with a 3-2 win.

During the summer of 1910 East Fife became increasingly concerned about the uncertainty surrounding Bayview Park as plans for the new school at Aberhill were drawn up. Initially, it was hoped that the only change to the football ground would be a further reduction in the dimensions of the playing surface, but when spectators arrived at Bayview for the first match of the 1910/11 season, they found that the whole playing surface had been moved several yards to the west. This meant that the grandstand, which had been situated in the middle of the north touchline, was now at the north-east corner of the ground. The pavilion, which had occupied a position between the grandstand and the north-west corner of the park, now found itself situated almost exactly on the half-way line!

Early in 1911 it became apparent that all was not well behind the scenes at Bayview Park when it was announced that the club was in a bad way financially, largely due to poor gates during the first half of the season. The club struggled on, but after two blank Saturdays in March when the financial situation forced the cancellation of two fixtures, doubt was expressed as to whether the Fifers could stay afloat. Faced with the possibility that their beloved football club was about to cease operations, club officials, local businessmen and supporters rallied round and decided on a course of action. Eventually, the decision was taken to float the club as a Limited Liability Company and, by April 1911, the flotation was reported to be ‘proceeding merrily’. On 29th May 1911, East Fife Football Club Limited was incorporated as a Company under the Companies (Consolidation) Act 1908. The Fifers had been saved!

Everyone associated with East Fife looked forward to the 1911/12 season with fresh enthusiasm. Never before in the history of the club had the outlook been so promising. The Fifers’ re-birth as a Limited Company with the associated cash injection from the sale of shares meant that the ‘old wood’ could be cleared away and some fresh talent brought to Bayview. The opportunity was also taken to change the team colours to black and gold, a choice that the club has retained to this day.

In the summer of 1914, East Fife applied for Scottish League membership yet again when the size of the Second Division was increased to sixteen, but were rejected in favour of Lochgelly United and Clydebank. Had their application been successful, however, the Fifers’ league membership would have been short lived due to the outbreak of the Great War just weeks later. After war broke out, Central League fixtures became few and far between for obvious reasons and, in August 1915, a meeting was held by club officials to decide if it was worthwhile keeping the club going. Fortunately the Fifers decided to carry on and joined the Eastern League, which was created as a result of the Scottish League’s decision to disband the Second Division for the remainder of the war.

Peace was eventually declared in November 1918 and East Fife joined the Central League once again when it was re-started in August 1919. The following season, East Fife won their first major trophy, the Scottish Qualifying Cup, by beating Bo’ness at Central Park, Cowdenbeath, in front of a record crowd of 18,603. Huge crowds gathered at Methil station to welcome the team home, where some players were lifted shoulder high and carried along Methil High Street with the cup held aloft. It was, at the time, the greatest achievement in the Fifers’ history.

Reaching the latter stages of the qualifying competition won entry to the Scottish Cup for the fourth time and, after defeating Stevenston United, the Fifers met Celtic for the first time in their history. With a huge crowd expected, major improvements were carried out at Bayview Park and squads of workmen were employed raising an embankment on the north side of the ground, adjacent to the grandstand. The match attracted a new ground record of 11,000, who saw the Glasgow side progress with a 3-1 victory.

By 1920, the Central League had become a very successful competition and, as the league was made up mainly by clubs from the prosperous mining communities of Fife and the Lothians, healthy crowds meant that member clubs could pay their players good wages. Eventually it became apparent that the Scottish League clubs were in grave danger of losing most of their better players to the Central League, attracted by the healthy wages on offer. In order to prevent this scenario, the Scottish League decided to offer membership to the sixteen Central League clubs, along with Vale of Leven, Johnstone, Forfar Athletic and Arbroath, at the start of season 1921/22.

After so many failed attempts, East Fife had finally managed to attain Scottish League status!

In anticipation of their entry into the Scottish League in 1921, East Fife proposed further improvements to Bayview Park, including the erection of a new 3,000 seat grandstand and an increase in the size of the banking to bring the total capacity up to 35,000. Of course, the actual improvements carried out fell far short of these ambitious proposals, but dramatic improvements were made to the playing surface. By the time Cowdenbeath visited Methil for a pre-season friendly the pitch was in magnificent order and general opinion was that very few Scottish League clubs had turf of a similar quality.

On Saturday 20th August 1921, East Fife played their first ever Scottish League match against Bathgate at Bayview Park, where Neish scored the Fifers’ first league goal from the penalty spot as the visitors won a disappointing match 2-1. Defeat at Stenhousemuir followed a week later, but on Saturday 3rd September the first ever Scottish League win was recorded; a single goal triumph over near-neighbours Lochgelly United at Bayview. The Fifers finished their Scottish League season in mid-table.

The summer of 1922 was dominated by the construction of the new grandstand on the south side of Bayview Park, opposite the wooden structure erected in 1906. The grandstand, which could only hold around a third of the originally proposed capacity, was opened at the beginning of October. Further ground improvements were carried out by a volunteer work force during the summer of 1923 when the banking around the ground was terraced in order to allow 20,000 spectators to be accommodated ‘in comfort’.

The Fifers’ league form didn’t exactly set the heather alight during the early 1920’s, with the club occupying a mid-table position in the Second Division for much of this time. The only time the club came anywhere near promotion was in season 1925/26 when they finished fourth; four points adrift of second placed Clyde and ten points behind Champions Dunfermline Athletic. On the other hand, the club never looked like candidates for relegation to the short-lived Third Division, which was in existence for three seasons from 1923 to 1926.

During the mid 1920’s, East Fife played Rangers for the first time when the two clubs were drawn to face each other in the Scottish Cup on 24th January 1925. Once again, the facilities at Bayview were improved with the addition of four turnstiles at the main entrance and two pay boxes in School Street, with the standing capacity of the ground also added to. Unfortunately, like their rivals Celtic four years earlier, the Glasgow giants returned west with a 3-1 victory.

A successful run in the Scottish Cup didn’t elude the club for much longer, however, and in January 1927 the Methil men embarked on what was to become a truly remarkable Scottish Cup run. Victory over Thornhill in the first round was rewarded with a home tie against Aberdeen. On 5th February, the ‘Dons’ visited Methil for the first time, where an early Jock Wood goal was countered by a Cheyne equaliser to take the tie to a replay at Pittodrie. The following Wednesday evening, the Fifers became ‘giant killers’ by knocking their First Division opponents out of the cup with a shock 2-1 victory. Two weeks later, a new ground record crowd of 12,000 paid to see East Fife take on Fife rivals Dunfermline Athletic in the third round of the competition at Bayview, where the home side claimed another First Division ‘scalp’ with a 2-0 victory.

The Quarter-Final paired the Fifers with fellow Second Division side Arthurlie at Dunterlie Park, Barrhead, where East Fife adapted best to the ‘quagmire’ conditions and comfortably saw off their counterparts with three goals without reply.

Only Partick Thistle now stood between East Fife and the final of the country’s top football tournament. On 26 March, a crowd of 38,000 packed the neutral terraces of Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh for the semi-final against the more fancied Glasgow side. With the score standing at 1-1,  East Fife captain Jock Wood netted what proved to be the winning goal and, when the final whistle sounded, scores of East Fife supporters dodged the lines of police, invaded the pitch and hugged their heroes. Just six years after becoming Scottish League members, East Fife met Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden Park on 16 April 1927, the first Cup final to be broadcast live on the radio.

Few who listened to the broadcast were prepared for the great start to the match when, after only two minutes, the Fifers took a shock lead through a header from Jock Wood. Unfortunately, the joy was short lived. Only a minute later the match was squared, just before half time Celtic took the lead, then just after the break the Glasgow scored again to make the final score 3-1.

With confidence no doubt boosted by the successful cup run, East Fife came agonisingly close to winning promotion the following season, but lost out by just two points to second placed Third Lanark. The club didn’t have long to wait for a crack at First Division football, however.

Promotion was finally achieved in season 1929/30 following an exciting season-long battle for the Second Division Championship with Leith Athletic, who eventually landed the title on goal average. With Raith Rovers’ relegation to the Second Division coming at the same time, East Fife had never had a better chance to establish themselves as the district’s top football club!