St Andrews United 2 Kelty Hearts 3

THOMAS COURTS has vowed his Kelty Hearts side will push title favourites Bonnyrigg Rose all the way after Saturday’s thrilling win at St Andrews.

This victory, which saw Kelty twice come from behind before Stephen Husband’s late penalty secured all three points, narrowed the gap between the third-placed Jambos and Bonnyrigg, who have played a game more, to nine points.

Courts still believes Rose are firm favourites to take the championship but he told Press Sport: “Bonnyrigg have been fantastic and have got our respect. If they do go on to win it, they will be worthy champions, but all we are doing is trying to win as many games as possible.

“We have an obligation to ourselves as champions, and to the rest of the league, to push them as hard as we can.

“We want to put them under as much pressure as possible.

“Our agenda is making sure our season doesn’t end with a whimper.

“We want to go out on a high and build for next season and, if we can’t win it, I’d like us to at least finish second and better our points tally from last season. That would be progress for me.

“We essentially have to win all of our remaining games, but we’ve still got the likes of Hill of Beath and Linlithgow Rose to play, so there’s some tricky ties left.”

Things didn’t start well for Hearts at Barnetts Park as Liam Rolland shot St Andrews into an 11th-minute lead after Ricky Patrick’s long clearance wasn’t cleared far enough by the visiting defence.

That stung Kelty into action and in the 34th minute, they equalised when Stuart Cargill buried the ball beyond Darren Clarkson from close range after the hosts failed to defend a free-kick.

Paddy Deane struck the post for United early in the second half as both teams went for it and, with an hour played, they retook the lead thanks to Barry Sibanda’s penalty awarded controversially for handball.

Kelty came back again and five minutes later, Brian Ritchie equalised for the second time when he flicked home Scott Gates’ corner.

With the contest finely poised, referee Jonathan Bell awarded the visitors a spot-kick of their own with eight minutes to go when he penalised Craig Wedderburn for handball and Husband stepped up to score from 12 yards.

Although Cargill was sent off in the closing minutes for a second booking, Courts added: “When we made it 1-1 I felt we’d go on and win the game and the players showed great character.”

Kennoway Star Hearts 2 Oakley United 2

OAKLEY UNITED have a new manager after James Watt resigned from his position with the Blairwood Park club.

Club secretary Dougie Hynd confirmed that Watt, who took charge of the Premier Division side in the summer of 2014, quit after last week’s 2-0 defeat to Thornton Hibs.

That loss to the bottom side left Oakley four points adrift of safety and after Watt’s resignation immediately after that game, the Blairwood committee installed Craig Cowans as their coach until the end of the season.

He was in the dugout for the first time at Kennoway Star Hearts on Saturday and will be pleased with the response from his players, who fought back from two goals down with 10 men to snatch what could be a vital point.

After going a man down in the first half for a professional foul, Oakley fell behind before the break when Ryan Robertson charged down a clearance from goalkeeper Ryan Adamson, which broke for Gav Gray to knock the ball into the empty net.

It got worse for the visitors soon after the restart when Robertson’s shot rebounded into the path of Kieran Band, who made no mistake in doubling Star’s advantage.

But Oakley refused to throw in the towel and after Lee Reid headed home a free kick with 10 minutes to go, the same player scored another header from a second set-piece minutes later to dramatically pull them level.

They did have to endure a late scare when Band smacked the post but the result moved Oakley up a place to third bottom.

With league rivals Montrose Roselea moving to the North Region next season, United’s survival chances may well be given an unexpected boost as league bosses could decide that three teams instead of four will go down from the Premier League to compensate.

Hynd said: “James resigned after the Thornton game and we thank him and his staff for their efforts. He did well for us, especially when he first came in and we only had four players, and we thought we’d kick on this season but it didn’t happen.”

Fife and Lothians Cup fourth round: Penicuik Athletic 3 Rosyth 0

ROSYTH boss Lee Richardson felt his team didn’t play to their full potential as they crashed out of the Fife and Lothians Cup.

Defeat away to Super League outfit Penicuik was always a likely outcome but Richardson admitted to feeling “a wee bit disappointed”.

The home side were the dominant force in the opening 45 minutes and were denied by a fine save from Ross Wortley but the South Division underdogs held the hosts to a stalemate at the interval.

Main marksman Tam Hampson forced Youssef Bejaoui into an excellent one-handed save early in the second half, but Rosyth fell behind in the 52nd minute, conceded a second 12 minutes later and the game was all over when Penicuik made it 3-0 with less than 20 minutes left.

Richardson said: “I was a wee bit disappointed to be honest because we didn’t play as well as we have been.

“We had two call-offs in the morning through injuries to my captain, Paddy Murphy, and Charlie Denton which upset my plans a wee bit, but the guys who came in played their part.

“It showed on the day that they are two leagues above us.

“They were more experienced, a bit more physical and definitely more streetwise.

“They deserved to beat us, but maybe by one or two goals instead of three.

“We’re not at that level yet, but every day is a school day for our young players, and playing against better opposition will help them.

“Hopefully, we can now win our remaining games and push up the league.”

Saturday’s fixtures (kick-offs 2.30pm): McBookie.com Super League – Broughty Athletic v Kelty Hearts.

McBookie.com Premier League – Dundonald Bluebell v Oakley United.

McBookie.com South Division – Pumpherston Juniors v Rosyth.