Published: Thursday, 4th December, 2008 4:45pm

Battling Kelty earn a point at Linlithgow

by Graham Gibson

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Pic by: Dunfermline Press

BATTLING Kelty Hearts defied the odds to come away with a point at league leaders Linlithgow Rose on Saturday.

Kelty were down to 11 fit players and had to draft in two trialists from Cupar Hearts to sit on the bench.

Despite this adversity, however, manager Stevie Leighton ended up disappointed at only coming away with a 1-1 draw.

A goal from Tam McGeorge put Hearts 1-0 up after just five minutes and it looked like he had added a second 15 minutes later only for the referee to controversially disallow the goal.

To add further insult to injury for Kelty, when Linlithgow did equalise with 20 minutes remaining, their goal had the dubious whiff of being offside.

Leighton said, 'Their goal was at least four yards offside and it was a bit of a kick in the teeth as we had done really well, a real backs to the wall performance especially with so many missing personnel.

'Although we were disappointed with the way they got their goal it was a great point to get going away there.'

Leighton was also delighted with the contribution made by his two Cupar Hearts trialists, Lee Sibanda and Ian Boylan, who both came off the bench and refused to be intimidated by the atmosphere.

'They both did really well, I was really pleased for them. With a big crowd at Linlithgow it can be an intimidating place and they both handled it well.'

The draw completes a pleasing sequence of results for Hearts after victory away at Bathgate and a draw at home to Whitburn.

'It has been a very satisfying string of results,' he admitted.

'Since we went out of the Scottish Cup to Thornton we"ve got five points from three fixtures, whereas last year from those three fixtures, we had no points.'

Looking forward to this week"s Fife and Lothians Cup clash away to Armadale, Leighton admitted the pleasing turn of form placed against the crippling injury list had placed a doubt in his head over whether it would be beneficial for the match to go ahead.

'If the game is on we will prepare properly but I wouldn"t be complaining if the game was cancelled,' he admitted.

'We will have John Martin back from suspension but we might have 13 players at the most.

'If it means backs to the wall again and we are getting performances like we have been then so be it, we will let the game go ahead, but our luck may run out with the number of injuries.'

Leighton is well aware of the potential banana skin the game presents to his side, especially given their previous form so far this season against lower league opposition.

'They are top of their league and looking to go back into their premier league.

"It looks like they have spent quite a bit of money and have changed personnel so it"s another banana skin,' he said.

'It has been a concern for us this season how we have been playing against lower league opposition. If you want to win cups or go on runs you have to beat teams like this.'