Joy for boss as front men hit goal trail
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VALE OF LEITHEN ................................. 0 EAST KILBRIDE ...................................... 3 Stuart Malcolm is encouraged to see his strikers find their shooting boots after East Kilbride eased to victory over Vale of Leithen.
The Lowland champions made it two wins from two with a dominant display in Innerleithen, where skipper Craig Malcolm hit a double and summer recruit Ross Kavanagh netted late on.
That followed on from forward Ruari Paton’s last-gasp winner over Dalbeattie in midweek.
And Malcolm said: “The really pleasing thing is that our strikers keep getting among the goals.
“It was Kav on Saturday and Ruari the week before scoring alongside Malks so that has been good to see.
“Everyone knows Malks will score goals and we are happy to see him do that after coming back from a wee niggle. He’s vital to what we are trying to achieve - as are all the players - and I’m delighted for him to score again.
“I’m very happy that the performance levels were stepped up from the Dalbeattie game last Wednesday night.
“We dominated possession and we created a lot of chances.
“We could have scored more than the three goals we got.”
Vale of Leithen were still smarting from a 5-1 thrashing at home to Gala Fairydean in midweek, but it took Kilby until the 43rd minute to get the breakthrough.
Graeme Holmes burst forward before firing at goal and when his strike came back off the post, Malcolm was on hand to mop up the rebound.
Twenty minutes into the second half Kilby found their second of the day.
Winter and Paton combined before the latter picked out Malcolm in the box and he curled a fine strike into the net from the edge of the box.
In stoppage time Kavanagh, a 75th minute replacement for Paton, drove forward and completed the win with a composed finish.
EK now host Caledonian Braves at K-Park, where fans can expect to see former Kilby striker Ross McNeil in action for the visitors.
Malcolm added: “Ross scores goals and we know that. He’s done well at Caledonian Braves and they started the season well too, so we know they will be difficult.
“It’s a tougher ask than our previous two games and that’s not being disrespectful to Dalbeattie and Vale.
“Ricky Waddell has a good squad there, they get the ball down and play good football so they will be a different animal to what we’ve faced so far.”
P East Stirlingshire 3 Bonnyrigg Rose 3 CS Strollers 3 Kelty Hearts 2 EAST KILBRIDE 2 Caledonian Braves 3 Cumbernauld Colts 2 Gala Fairydean Rvs 3 BSC Glasgow 3 Spartans 2 Stirling University 2 Berwick Rangers 2 Dalbeattie Star 3 Gretna 2008 3 Edinburgh Uni 3 Vale of Leithen 3 W 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 D 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 L 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 3 GD 12 8 4 11 5 4 4 4 0 1 0 -3 -11 -12 -12 -13 PT 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 4 3 3 0 0 0 0 0
Other results Berwick 1 Stirling Uni 2; Caledonian Braves 1 Kelty Hearts 4; CS Strollers 1 Bonnyrigg 1; Dalbeattie 0 Gala Fairydean1; East Stirling 9 Gretna 2008 1; Spartans 2 Edinburgh Uni 0.