Kelty Hearts 3 Fauldhouse United 1

KELTY HEARTS recorded their second successive 3-1 Super League victory by seeing off Fauldhouse United at Central Park.

With no goals at half-time, the contest exploded into life shortly after the interval when Fauldhouse, lying third from bottom in the table, took a shock lead.

Brian Ross’ cross from the left was turned into his own net by helpless player-boss Thomas Courts as he tried to cut out the danger.

Just moments after taking the lead, United were reduced to 10 men when Clark Campbell was shown a second yellow for fouling Scott Dalziel and, from the resulting free kick, Stephen Husband curled a wonderful shot into the top corner to haul the home side level.

Kelty continued to pepper the visiting goal as they looked for the win that would see them maintain the pressure on leaders Bonnyrigg Rose and it eventually paid off when Scott Gates’ deep cross to the far post was nodded back across goal by Murray Carstairs for Dalziel to nod home from six yards.

With just three minutes left, Hearts were awarded a penalty after Gary Fallon was red-carded for handling in the box and Paul Currie stepped up to complete the victory and keep Kelty just five points behind the leaders in third place.

Oakley United 1 Arniston Rangers 1

JAMES WATT admitted Saturday’s draw with Arniston Rangers felt like a defeat for Oakley United after they conceded a last-gasp equaliser.

Michael Fleming’s opener for the home side 10 minutes into the second half looked set to hand the Blairwood Park men a huge boost in their battle to avoid the drop from the Premier League.

But the Midlothian visitors snatched an unlikely point two minutes into stoppage time to ensure the West Fifers remained second from bottom of the table and left their boss frustrated but full of sympathy for his players.

Watt told Press Sport: “We have good players at the club and I am confident the boys have enough in their locker to put in performances and get us out of this mess. We know we’re not a bad side but also know we’re under pressure to get points on the board. Saturday feels like a defeat with the way the game panned out and I felt we should have won it. We had good chances to make it 2-0 but, with the season we’ve had, I almost knew that a goal for them was coming.

“The boys are gutted because they’ve put so much into the last three games and only come away with two points when we should have had six. Performance-wise we were OK. I was missing three players from last week so the boys who came in were a plus but we need to start scoring more goals. The players are honest, hard-working and give everything but it’s just not going in the net for us at the moment.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We look forward to Saturday where we’re away to Montrose. It will be a battle but I am positive I have enough in that dressing room to get a result.”

Dunbar United 7 Rosyth 2

ROSYTH boss Lee Richardson had sympathy for his vastly under-strength side as they fell to a heavy loss at promotion-chasing Dunbar United.

The Recreation Park outfit were hit with a number of call-offs ahead of the game that saw them only able to count on nine of their regular squad – while Richardson was forced to name himself as a substitute.

It proved too much of a hill to climb for the patched-up West Fifers who found themselves a goal down after just four minutes when Darren Gillon hammered home a loose ball from 20 yards out.

Although Rosyth had beaten Dunbar on their home turf earlier in the season, any chance of a repeat looked unlikely minutes later when Dean Ballantyne reacted quickest to stroke home from close range after the visitors had cleared Grant Thomson’s effort off the line.

Goal machine Tam Hampson saw an effort cleared off the line as Rosyth attempted to hit back but Sam Young came close to extending Dunbar’s advantage before half-time when his header cannoned off the crossbar.

It didn’t take long for the third goal to arrive from Ballantyne, who then completed his hat-trick by swivelling at the edge of the box and blasting high into the net.

Chris Grant made it five from a corner despite Rosyth protests that there had been a foul on goalkeeper Kevin Smith before Young held off Lewis Hamil’s challenge to score Dunbar’s sixth.

Young added his second by heading in Darren Handling’s cross for Dunbar’s seventh but Rosyth refused to throw in the towel, winning a penalty through Kevin Goodwin that Hampson tucked home.

Andrew Stark headed home a second for the visitors 10 minutes from time and Richardson said: “They were head and shoulders above us but I can’t fault the players who went down. They worked hard but it just didn’t happen for us and we have to move on. One bad result doesn’t make us a poor team and throughout the season we haven’t had consistency in our team selection and the break we had because of the weather when we were winning upset our rhythm.

“We’re out of the promotion race now but we’ll still be going for it in every game. We want to finish as the top Fife team and have a cup game with Penicuik to play, so we’ll keep going.”

Saturday’s fixtures (kick-offs 2.30pm): Fife and Lothians Cup – Armadale Thistle v Kelty Hearts. McBookie.com Premier League – Montrose Roselea v Oakley United. McBookie.com South Division – Whitburn Juniors v Rosyth.