Rossvale stay clear at top after seventh straight league win

Perthshire had to wait till the 49th minute to test Jamie Donnelly in the ‘Vale’s goal, when Baboucar Mussa scored from the neatest of angles, after winning the ball out at the corner flag and running along bye-line to slip one in at the back post.

But up until then all Perthshire were interested in doing was playing long balls which the competent back line of Vale dealt with easily.

It took until the 15th minute for Rossvale to settle down and move the ball about and Kirk Forbes was unlucky when he broke down the middle and unleashed a tremendous shot which brought out a wonderful save from Chris Calder in Perthshire goal.

One of the few attacks from Perthshire came in the 20th minute when trialist Docherty crossed an excellent ball into the Vale box but Fraser Malcolm completely missed the chance to score.

The ball went out to Anton McDowell who played a long ball down line to Greg Fernie whose shot brought out another excellent save from Calder.

A minute later there were strong claims for a penalty from the Vale players when David Kirkwood stopped a shot with his hand in front of the referee.

But whilst everyone else was busy claiming the ball broke to Fernie who kept his head and side-stepped Calder to slip the ball into an empty net and put Vale ahead.

Perthshire came close when Forbes made a mistake in the box but Liam Crichton cleared the danger.

Vale immediately broke down the park and it was Fernie again who steadied himself before placing the ball past Calder into the corner of the net to put the Vale two up in a five-minute spell.

Perthshire were unfortunate when their best player Malcolm had to leave the field when he overstretched running after the ball and strained his groin.

Just on half-time ‘Vale were unfortunate not to get another goal following a great move down the right by Gary Giffin. He then passed to Liam McGonigle who returned the ball to Giffin, but his shot was weak and easy for Calder to deal with.

Shortly after the restart Perthshire got, and took, their chance with Mussa’s goal.

But this didn’t seem to upset Vale and McGonigle played the ball to Jamie Hunter who found Crichton but his shot sailed over the crossbar, to Calder’s relief.

With Vale stepping up the pace and controlling the game, Forbes broke from midfield and unleashed an unstoppable shot from 30 yards into the keeper’s bottom right hand corner to put the game out of Perthshire’s reach.

It could have been 4-1 but for an unbelievable miss when Giffin’s cross was missed by Hunter right in front of goal but it landed at the feet of Steven Seaton who had just come on and from eight yards out hit the upright with the empty goal begging.

However the Bishopbriggs side had done enough to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the table.

Next up for Rossvale is another home game next Saturday against East Kilbride Thistle, kick-off 2pm.