Rossvale end year with win over Rutherglen Glencairn

The win stretched Vale’s unbeaten run to four games and lifted them up to ninth in the table with a haul of nine points from nine games.

The visitors started brightly and forced a first-minute corner, but they were unable to take advantage after Craig Gordon misjudged Dale Simeon’s delivery.

However, the opener wasn’t delayed for long. With just three minutes on the clock, Simeon collected a Tom Miller cross and made space for himself inside the box before firing a low shot across the diving Gordon into the far corner.

Rossvale responded with a low angled shot from 20 yards by Conor Bradley, which was well held down low on his goal-line by Scott McLellan.

But Glens continued to threaten as a vital interception from Vale’s Robbie Torrance found Harry Mitchell and Mick O’Byrne headed wide from another Simeon corner.

Rossvale thought they had earned a spot-kick when Paul Brennan was flattened inside the box by O’Byrne, but the award was overturned due to an offside flag against the Vale man.

David Gormley’s side didn’t have long to wait before they got back on level terms after 25 minutes.

Bradley got clear on the left and his superb cross was perfect for Lee Roulston to head home from inside the six-yard box.

Three minutes later the home side were in front as a swift passing move ended with Roulston firing in an angled drive which McLellan got a hand to but couldn’t keep out and snuck into the far corner of the net.

Roulston could, perhaps should, have completed a six-minute hat-trick when the ball broke to him inside the box only for the Vale striker to pull a right-foot shot wide of the far post.

Having seen their early advantage overturned, Glens started the second half determined to grab an equaliser.

But they were left with uphill task when Jackson Biggar was booked for a challenge and then shown a second yellow card, and thus a red, for dissent.

Glencairn continued to push forward when they could, but with only 10 men, that left gaps Rossvale could look to exploit on the counter-attack.

A goal-line block by Craig McGregor kept out a Brennan effort and Roulston then missed another chance to complete his hat-trick as he robbed McLeland after the keeper dithered in possession but again dragged his shot wide of the target.

However, Rossvale finally sealed their victory in stoppage time when the ball was worked into the danger area and fell for Jonathan Kavanagh to fire home from six yards.

The match was Rossvale’s final fixture of 2020.

Their first game of the new year is on Saturday when they travel to Bonnyton Thistle.