Bellshill stay top with win
Bellshill Athletic held on to top spot in West League 1 with a 3-0 win at home to Lanark United.
That kept Bellshill a point clear of second-placed Greenock, with a game in hand, but knocked United down from second to fourth.
Lesmahagow moved down a place to seventh after their 1-0 defeat at Shettleston, who moved up a spot to third.
Larkhall Thistle leapt up three places to eighth with a 6-1 win at home to Maryhill, leaving them two points behind ’Gow, but with a game in hand.
Royal Albert’s 1-1 draw at Glasgow Perthshire moved them up one to 13th, trading places with Wishaw, who lost 1-0 at East Kilbride Thistle.
Both sides created early chances but Bellshill held the edge over Lanark and took the lead in 30 minutes when Alessandro Savarese hit the net for the second successive game.
PJ O’donnell sent a shot whistling past as Lanark tried to get back into the game.
The second half was a slow starter for both sides, but Bellshill went 2-0 up in 66 minutes when Lee Nichol picked up a loose ball 30 yards out and hit an unstoppable shot into the net.
Hugh Kerr fired over from an O’donnell free kick, Cammy Lawson rattled a post with a 25yard shot, and Mark Haddow headed over as United tried to get back into the game.
However, poor defending let Bellshill in and Jamie Stewart wrapped up the points with a late third.
Steffan Graham chased a long kick-out to net the winner for Shettleston, consigning Lesmahagow to their fifth defeat from 10 starts.
Larkhall were 3-1 up at halftime as they ran riot against Maryhill, seven days after losing 5-0 at Ardrossan.
They took the lead in two minutes, when Michael Brunton’s throw-in landed perfectly for Warren Grenfell, who smashed it into the roof of the net from six yards.
Jags keeper Ryan Cooper made a good save, and at the other end Graham Gracie had a shot saved.
Thistle doubled their lead in 18 minutes when another throwin found Jack Currie in plenty of space and he smashed the ball low into the corner.
Maryhill pulled a goal back through Brian Ashe on the halfhour mark.
However, Gracie added a second and Larkhall’s third in 41 minutes, playing a one-two with Dylan O’hagan before firing low past the keeper.
Gracie tried to chip the ball over the Maryhill keeper but he back-pedalled enough to make the save in 60 minutes.
A minute later, Grenfell sent Currie through and he sold two defenders with a feint before squaring the ball for Gracie to claim a tap-in at the back post.
Cooper produced a fine save to deny Maryhill a spectacular goal, and when the ball broke upfield to Currie, he drove on and played it wide to Brunton, who slipped it across the face of goal for Gracie to bag his hattrick and Larkhall’s fifth.
Currie rounded off the scoring by running through a static defence and tucking the ball past the helpless keeper.
That result puts Thistle above Maryhill on goal-difference, but the Glasgow side have played one game more.
Injury and holiday deprived Royal Albert of several key players on Saturday, but they managed a good 1-1 draw at Glasgow Perthshire.
Constant pressure by the hosts paid off in 10 minutes with a goal by Craig Smith, and it took the county side until the 78th minute to bag an equaliser when a ball was played down the left and Marc Mcginty beat his man to race in on goal, and he cleverly knocked the ball past the outrushing keeper to Archer to net.
Wishaw dropped down a place with a 1-0 defeat at East Kilbride Thistle, as Ross Good scored three minutes into the second half to give them their first league win of the season.
Carluke remain fifth after their game at Girvan was postponed after the hosts were unable to fulfil the fixture.