Vale of Leithen 2

Dalbeattie Star 3

Callum Hodgson at Victoria Park

A DEAN Brotherston brace helped Dalbeattie Star put Vale of Leithen to the sword at Victoria Park on Saturday.

The Innerleithen side sit just one place above Darren Kerr’s team in the table and both were desperate to climb away from the bottom.

But despite opening the scoring through Ainslie Hunter, goals from Tommy Muir and a Brotherston strike left Vale with a mountain to climb.

Chris Anderson’s side did grab a second through a Kerr Allan penalty in stoppage time, but the points were already in the bag.

After the match, Vale gaffer Anderson told us: “It was a really tough game on a terrible pitch, but they wanted it more than us and I thought they thoroughly deserved to win.

“We’ve got Edinburgh Uni at the weekend and that becomes an even bigger game for us now.

“We were disappointing today, but we’ll be making sure we are prepared for Saturday.”

Both teams had good chances in the opening half hour.

Sean Stewart fired over the bar for Vale on 15 minutes and soon after Muir could have taken the lead for the visitors when he broke through, but Ross Gilpin made a good save.

The home side did manage to grab the opening goal on 31 minutes after some lacklustre goalkeeping from Vincent Parker.

He came out to the edge of the box to compete for a loose ball but couldn’t control it.

Kerr Allan then managed to take advantage, but his effort struck the post.

Luckily, Hunter was on hand to slot the rebound into the empty net.

They say you’re at your most vulnerable when you’ve just scored and that was exactly the case.

It took Dalbeattie just a minute to grab an equaliser.

Lewis Todd passed in from the right, the Vale defence couldn’t clear and Muir slotted home.

And eight minutes later they went in front.

Dangerman Farrel O’Sullivan fired a cross in from the left and Brotherston powered past Gilpin.

And it got worse for the Innerleithen side seven minutes after the interval.

Muir charged forward into the 18-yard-box and picked out Brotherston again, who claimed his second of the afternoon.

The striker could have grabbed his hat-trick but his header smacked the upright on 73 minutes.

And to make things worse, Tommy Patterson had to be taken off with a knee injury after colliding with Star's goalkeeper.

But Anderson’s side didn’t give up as Alistair Smith fired narrowly wide.

And they were awarded a penalty in stoppage time when Scott Milligan brought down Stewart.

Allan stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way, but it was too late in the day to take any points from the game.

Vale: R Gilpin, J Scott-Mercer (A Lewis 62), R Brady, A Imlah, C McBride, A Smith, T Patterson (C Anderson 74), A Hunter, K Allan, L Smith, S Stewart. Subs not used: K Beveridge