Vale of Leithen 0

BSC Glasgow 4

Kenny Paterson at Victoria Park

EX-KILMARNOCK winger Stevie Murray did plenty of talking during BSC Glasgow’s win at Vale of Leithen, but he backed it up with a superb showing to see off the home side.

The 34-year-old, who let the match officials and opposing players know what he thought of them throughout the game, played a pivotal role in three of the visitor’s goals, two of which came in the opening three minutes which left Vale down and out almost immediately after kick off.

While big spending Lowland League leaders BSC look like they could go all the way in the race for the title, Vale boss Chris Anderson was more interested in his side’s poor performance.

Anderson said: “We gifted them two goals in the opening minutes, and after that we were just really flat throughout.

“Full credit to BSC who are a very experienced side but we made it too easy for them

“We have Upper Annandale in the South Challenge Cup this weekend, which is a good opportunity to bounce back from this defeat.”

Two Lowland League wins on the trot meant Vale headed into this game with plenty of confidence. But that positivity evaporated just 180 seconds after referee Gavin Ross blew the whistle to start the game.

Murray’s brilliant cross after two minutes was only cleared to Gary Redpath, whose perfect curling shot found the top corner.

And before Vale could regroup, they were 2-0 down. After latching onto a defence splitting pass, Jack Smith dinked the ball past Ross Gilpin with a typically composed finish from the former Stenhousemuir hitman.

A shocked Vale side had a couple of half chances to cut the lead, with Andy Martin heading wide and Jonny Scott-Mercer firing a decent shot straight at BSC goalkeeper Ryan Marshall.

Smith was less impressive when he blatantly dived while competing for the ball with Ally Smith, and was rightly booked.

Yet, the third goal arrived soon after on 20 minutes. Martin Grehan, another BSC player with plenty senior football experience with Partick Thistle and Stirling Albion among others, controlled Murray’s cross-field pass before curling another brilliant effort beyond Gilpin.

Gilpin had been helpless for all three goals, but he did well to deny the Glaswegians a fourth as Smith almost capitalised on further poor Vale defending.

Anderson pushed Smith up front alongside Sean Stewart at the start of the second half which seemed to spook BSC for a short period, but normality resumed on 55 minutes with a fourth goal.

A poor Scott-Mercer challenge on Redpath sparked a melee which resulted in the Vale defender earning a yellow card, and from the resultant Murray free kick Ciaran Donnelly poked the ball into the bottom corner.

Robbie Duncan and Smith should have added to BSC’s total, while Ainslie Hunter missed a free header late on for the homesters.

BSC manager Stephen Swift said: “We knew this would be a difficult game due to the pitch and the environment, but I cannot fault the performance by my team.”

Vale of Leithen: R. Gilpin, J. Scott-Mercer (A. Imlah 70), A. Lewis, A. Smith, C. McBride, A. Hunter, A. Martin (S. Alexander 66), K. Allan, B. Raiker, T. Paterson (M. Graham 59), S. Stewart.