Cumbernauld Colts 6

Vale of Leithen 1

Ronan Alexander

at Broadwood Stadium

VALE of Leithen suffered a heavy 6-1 defeat at the hands of Cumbernauld Colts at Broadwood Stadium on Saturday.

After taking an early lead through Jason Stevens, the hosts hit back and ran away with the game.

Summing up his side’s performance, Vale boss Chris Anderson said: “It was not very good."

Despite having several key players missing through injury, Anderson added: “It’s not an excuse, the 11 we put out on the pitch was strong enough to do better than we anticipated."

The visitors got off to a dream start as they were gifted an early lead.

Liall Smith whipped in a corner from the left which was met by Jason Stevens, but the goalkeeper looked to have saved the danger but the ball dropped into the Colts net.

However, that advantage did not last long, as the hosts hit back with two goals in as many minutes.

The first came courtesy of a header at the back post by Liam McCrory and then the game was turned on its head as Craig Holmes fired Cumbernauld in front.

The home side’s lead was doubled on 17 minutes when Sean Brown found the bottom corner after good hold up play by William Mortimer.

Vale then somehow couldn’t find the back of the net after two goalmouth scrambles, and were made to pay on the stroke of half time when Stephen Kerr curled a shot into the top corner making it 4-1.

The men from Innerleithen struggled to create any clear openings in the second half, and Colts netted twice more, with two assists from dangerous left winger Stephen O’Neill as Brown tapped home his second of the match and Craig Murray finished the scoring in the 84th minute.

The result leaves Vale with just two wins from their opening eight games, but Anderson is remaining positive ahead of the next fortnight's cup matches against Tweedmouth Rangers and Spartans.

He added: “We’ll have to do a lot better, the next couple weeks are going to be important for us going forward.

“We will hopefully have one or two new signings in and a couple back from injury before the Scottish Cup."

Vale of Leithen: Gilpin, Scott-Mercer, Brady, Hunter, McBride, Allan, Steward, J Stevens (Imlah 46), Finnie, Smith, S Stevens (Anderson 67). Subs not used: Lane, Beveridge.