Scone toppled as Maloney key man for Shipbuilders

Scone Thistle’s tenure at the top was short-lived after going down by the only goal of the game away to East Craigie in difficult conditions.

Substitute Lee Maloney was the man who mattered for the Shipbuilders.

Earlier in the second half he was fouled by Sean Whitworth.

However, David Winton pulled off a great save to deny Nik Mann from a penalty.

With two minutes left it looked like honours would be even, but Maloney was again fouled in the box, this time by Arran McKay.

Maloney made no mistake, sending the keeper the wrong way.

While it was Thistle’s first league defeat since mid-November, they could have few complaints over the outcome.

That defeat allowed Kirrie Thistle to regain pole position after cruising to a 5-0 victory at Coupar Angus.

After going five weeks without a game, the hosts looked decidedly ringrusty and were no match for a Thistle side chalking up an 11th straight league win.

Darren Scott, Brian Duell, David Millar, Kamil Kadela and Scott Drumm were the men on target for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Thornton are level on points with Kirrie and their 8-0 victory at Forfar Albion also reduced the goal difference separating them to four.

The goals were equally divided between the halves.

In the first half a Daniel Duggan own goal was followed by counters from Shaun Keatings, Gary Thomson senior and Dougie McNab – the first of his foursome as he hit a second half hattrick.

Chris Ireland was the other scorer after the break.

In a scoreless stalemate between Arbroath Vics and Harp at Ogilvy Park, goalmouth action wasn’t so much at a premium as non-existent.

Apart from the point, both sides took some comfort from the game. The hosts kept a clean sheet after shipping seven the previous week, while Harp extended their unbeaten run to four.

Raymond Crichton of Thornton and Ross McLeary of Forfar.