A brilliantly taken first-half double from Mitch Megginson and Jamie Masson’s 75th-minute strike earned Cove Rangers a place in the SPFL pyramid play-off final against Berwick Rangers.
Both teams finished the first half with 10 men after Cove striker Martin Scott saw red for a stamp, before Kilby’s full-back Bernard Coll followed him up the tunnel in first half injury-time after picking up a second booking.
Delighted Cove defender Ryan Strachan can’t wait for this Saturday’s play-off final first leg against Berwick, who finished bottom of League 2.
He said: “Our whole season has been geared up to getting into the pyramid play-off final, but nothing’s done yet as we still have two games to go.
“It won’t be a successful season if we don’t manage to get through these next two games against Berwick, even though we’ve won our domestic treble.
“We blew East Kilbride away. There was a lot of talk that they were going to beat us down there and they were going to come out quickly today.
“But they did neither and in the end I felt we were quite comfortable as they only managed two shots at goal.”
Cove kept faith with the same 11 players who won 2-1 in the first leg down at K Park.
East Kilbride made four changes to their starting line-up, bringing in Jamie Longworth, who gave his side a lifeline with a 93rd-minute strike of the first leg, along with David Proctor, Sean Winter and Michael Anderson.
Cove had the first chance in the third minute but Megginson fired a couple of yards wide of the target before a Connor Scully free-kick flew over.
Kilby responded with a Paul Wood effort which was easily gathered by Cove goalkeeper Stuart McKenzie.
In the 18th minute, Harry Milne’s driven ball from wide on the right failed to finds any takers.
The ground erupted when Cove Rangers took the lead in the 28th minute when Scully’s cross from the right picked out Megginson, who controlled the ball on his chest before clipping it past Willie Muir from six yards for his 47th goal of the season.
Four minutes later, Muir did well to dive and smother a swerving Blair Yule drive as Cove looked to press home their advantage.
But Cove were reduced to 10 men after 35 minutes when Martin Scott was shown a red card by referee Mike Roncone for stamping on Kilby full-back Bernard Coll.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Cove doubled their lead in the 41st minute when Megginson intercepted Proctor’s pass to Michael Anderson and slid the ball past the advancing Muir.
In the first minute of first-half stoppage time, East Kilbride were also reduced to 10 men when Coll, who had been booked for dissent at the Scott sending-off, picked up another yellow card for a push on Megginson.
Cove continued where they left off in the first half after the break when Daniel Park fired a 12-yard angled drive wide of the target.
East Kilbride forced a couple of corner kicks as they tried to get back into the game but they failed to trouble keeper Stuart McKenzie and his well-drilled defence.
In the 75th minute, former Aberdeen midfielder Masson took a Blair Yule feed and steered the ball past Muir into the corner of the net from 10 yards to end any hope for Kilby.
Cove will host Berwick Rangers on Saturday.
