Rossvale and Cumbernauld United forced to settle for a point apiece

In a wet, windy first half Cumbernauld came out fighting and for the first 15 minutes they were the better side.

And by the time Vale started to settle and take the game on they were behind. A free-kick was played into the Vale box and ex-Rob Roy man Stefan Law lost his marker and had an easy job to put his header well out of keeper Jamie Donnelly’s reach.

That came on 11 minutes and three minutes later Cumbernauld almost went further ahead. After a good run down the right by new signing Chris Hall, his excellent cross found Kieran McAleenan whose shot narrowly went over, much to the relief of the ‘Vale’s defence.

Vale threatened when a Kirk Forbes free-kick found Gary Giffin but his effort was easily saved. Then a high ball over the top found Andy Johnstone who beat his man and lobbed the onrushing keeper, only to see a defender clear the goalbound shot.

A Chris Zok effort then sneaked past before Johnstone again tried chipping the keeper who recovered to save at the second attempt.

Both sides were playing some lovely football and Vale came close again before the break when Josh O’Hare found Giffin who put Jamie Hunter through on goal, but his final effort was easily.

Early in the second half Vale had the majority of the ball and produced some fine inter-play with only the final effort letting them down.

However they kept pushing forward and Zok could only watch as the keeper managed to get a hand to turn his header away for as corner.

At the other end Scott Davidson, a thorn in Vale’s side in the first half, tried an opportunist shot from about 40 yards which went narrowly over.

However, to the relief of the Vale support, the much deserved equaliser arrived in 69 minutes when Hunter found O’Hare 25 yards out and he gave the outstretched keeper no chance with his effort.

Gary McMenamin was fortunate in the 80th minute when he ‘took one for the team’ as Hall bore down on Donnelly.

His tackle won Cumbernauld a free-kick just outside the box but Vale managed to clear the ball upfield. It was won by Liam McGonigle and he laid an excellent ball to Giffin who beat a couple of players and could not believe it when his shot beat the diving keeper only to come off the bottom of the upright.

Five minutes from time Giffin outsprinted the ‘Nauld defence, but with only the keeper to beat he fell awkwardly and had to be carried off; hopefully with not too serious an injury for next week’s Scottish Junior Cup tie at Tayport.

After a good start from Cumbernauld only some poor finishing and wrong decisions saved them from an upset, but possibly both teams were happy with a draw at the end of the day.