Vale of Leithen 6

Gretna 1

David Knox

at Victoria Park

PLAYING the hand you’re dealt is something Chris Anderson has become fairly adept at in recent seasons.

The Vale manager may have been without seven of his squad for the arrival of Gretna to Victoria Park, but he still played a tactical ace –bluffing his opposite number Davie Irons into pushing players forward and leaving gaps all over the place.

Vale’s swift counter-attacking netted four first half goals and on another day could easily have led to a lot more following the break.

Poker-faced Anderson admitted his players came up trumps.

He told us: “We had a game plan and the players were magnificent in the way they executed it this afternoon.

“Gretna aren’t a bad team and we’ve struggled in the past against them which makes the victory all the better.”

Vale defended deeply from the off with Gretna forcing a few early clearances.

But the crowded home half left acres of space for the rapid front duo of Sean Stewart and Brad Rixon to run into.

The opener on 14 minutes saw Rixon win the race to latch onto Paul Dickson’s long ball and slot a shot beyond Jim Atkinson.

Only a tremendous tackle from Stuart Johnston prevented Kerr Allan pulling the trigger in front of goal three minutes later as Vale, again, broke at speed.

The second goal arrived just a couple of minutes later as Marc Berry raced to the byline and his cut back was brilliantly finished by Stewart from the edge of the area.

Gretna continued to push forward and they were rewarded with an Ashley Kelly strike after the home defence had failed to clear their lines.

But any hopes the visitors had of a fightback were quickly quashed.

Stewart intercepted a backward header and drew the foul from keeper Atkinson inside the area.

Dickson converted the 39th minute penalty to make it 3-1.

And just two minutes later Berry burst from his own half to outpace the central defenders and fire past Atkinson.

Dickson slotted home his second penalty six minutes into the second half following some trickery from both Ally Smith and Stewart which led to a rash challenge from Johnston.

Gretna were awarded a spot kick of their own following a tangle inside the area, but Ross Gilpin produced an eye-catching save to deny Kevin Connolly.

Stewart’s sprint away from the defence on 75 minutes led to visiting keeper Atkinson collecting his second yellow card for a foul inside the area.

And it allowed Dickson to score his hat-trick of penalties past reserve stopper Daniel Waugh.

The young reserve keeper pulled off a couple of good stops to prevent Vale adding to their tally in the closing stages.

Vale of Leithen. R Gilpin, A Smith, C McBride, P Dickson, M Berry, A Hunter, B Rixon, K Allan, A Imlah, D Bonner (J Elliot 46) & S Stewart.

David Knox