Vale of Leithen 1

Kelty Hearts 6

David Knox

at Victoria Park

THE only thing unpredictable about Saturday was which team decided to rest players ahead of this weekend’s crucial Scottish Cup first round matches.

With prestige and a handsome pay-day up for grabs, it was understandable that Chris Anderson decided to drop four or five of his regular starters to the bench.

Less predictable was Bob Malcom, who was deputising for Barry Ferguson, opting to field his strongest available 11 despite having a live television match awaiting on Friday evening.

Anderson told us: “We let a few boys who haven’t been getting a lot of game time to go out and earn a more regular place.

“One or two of our players are coming back from injury as well and we didn’t want to risk them ahead of the Scottish Cup.

“I don’t think it would have mattered which starting team I had today we’d have struggled to compete with a team as good as Kelty.

“They’ve shown already in the league game here how good they are and, although we matched them for much of the first half, they had the quality again today to hurt us.”

Kelty left Victoria Park last month with all three points after a 7-0 drubbing of their hosts.

But, for the opening quarter of an hour on Saturday, it was the under-strength Vale who played with confidence.

And it came as no surprise, after piling on the early pressure, that Alex Imlah poked them in front during a gaol-mouth scramble.

The 15th minute opener woke Kelty from their slumber and it wasn’t long until they began creating chances.

Ross Gilpin saved well from Nathan Austin’s backward header in the 19th minute.

Just five minutes later Austin’s header back across goal was somehow kneed over the bar by Murray Cartstairs from a couple of yards out.

The equaliser arrived on the half hour after Austin was judged to have been fouled inside the area by the unfortunate Ally Smith.

Austin gave Gilpin little chance with the clinical penalty.

Just four minutes later Kelty were in front after Carstairs made up for his earlier miss by converting at the near post.

Vale had defended valiantly for much of the first 45 minutes, but they were pulled apart twice in the opening 15 minutes of the second half.

Chris Dodd found plenty of space to smash a shot in off the post.

And just a few minutes later Austin ran onto a long ball to fire into the same bottom corner.

Another Austin goal, this time rounding Gilpin after beating the offside trap, made it 5-1 in the 64th minute.

Vale managed to stem the flow with some determined tackling until the final play of the match.

But substitute Scott McBride found room in the 94th minute to head home from a corner to make it 6-1.

Kelty assistant Malcom said: “We haven’t got the biggest of squads so we decided to play what we thought was our strongest starting team.

“I don’t think we played particularly well today – the pitch wasn’t great and the wind made it difficult – but we’re happy with the win and to come away from the game with no injuries.”

Vale of Leithen. R Gilpin, A Smith, C O’Neil (L Hall 72), A Imlah, J Wishart, R Higgins, C Hall, M Robertson (L Ireland 61), M Underhill (B Rixon 61), L Smith & R Dent