Elgin's first real chance came in the tenth minute. Andy Roddie slipped the ball through to Alex Bone but the league's joint top marksman dragged his shot wide.
City continued putting the pressure on Stenny and the breakthrough came in the twenty-ninth minute. The lively Phil Reid took the ball down the right wing, cut in at the by-line and pulled the ball back into the box for Bone to strike into the bottom corner.
The home side almost equalised straight away when McGrillen was sent clear but he placed his shot just wide. Stenhousemuir came close to equalising again on the other side of half time when Martin Lauchlan, their most dangerous player of the afternoon, cut in from the left wing and hit a curling shot which narrowly went over.
Keiron Renton launched the resultant goal kick forward and the ball was flicked on into the opposition's box. Roddie was the first to the ball and as he faced a one-on-one with Willie McCulloch he was tripped by Keith Knox. Bone took the spot kick and sent McCulloch the wrong way to grab his second of the game.
In the seventieth minute, Renton was forced to make his first save of the game when he palmed a shot from Joe Savage onto the crossbar. Minutes later Savage had another good chance when he intercepted a sloppy back-pass but Renton confidently blocked the substitute's shot.
With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Elgin should have made it three. Reid beat the offside trap and instead of shooting, the youngster unselfishly tried to square the ball to Bone for his hat-trick but McCulloch cut out the cross.
As the match drew to a close, Reid forced two saves from McCulloch and Roddie tried his luck from range but the score stayed the same as Elgin ran out comfortable winners.
City: Keiron Renton, Stuart Cumming, Allan Dempsie, Paul Kaczan, Hugh Dickson, Stephen Black, Willie Martin, Adam Nelson, Alex Bone, Phil Reid (Paul Napier, 90), Andy Roddie.
Subs not used: Martin Pirie, Iain Vigurs, Garry Wood, Trialist.