Published: Thursday, 12th March, 2009 7:40am

Oakley sickened by last-gasp leveller

by Simon Harris

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OAKLEY UNITED boss Stevie Kay admitted he was still 'devastated' this week after his side threw away the three points in the final two minutes of their 'must-win' relegation scrap at home to fellow strugglers Blairgowrie on Saturday.

Brian Ritchie had given Oakley a first-half lead with a well worked goal but the visitors scored direct from a corner on the stroke of half time.

The home side suffered another blow early in the second half when Peter Fyfe was given a straight red card for a poor tackle but they bounced back and the 10 men looked to have won it when ex-East Fife midfielder Ryan Blackadder scored on his debut with a wonder strike four minutes from time.

But with just two minutes left, Blairgowrie scrambled an equaliser.

'I"m still devastated now,' Kay told Press Sport on Tuesday.

'We could have been three or four up before they even scored and the game should have been dead and buried.

"A neutral wouldn"t have known we were down to 10 men and when Blackadder scored I thought we had enough in the tank to beat them, even though we had eight players unavailable for the game.

'But some of the players were tired and they scored after a slip by us.

'We are doing our own legs by not being ruthless and not being professional and putting teams away.'

Despite declaring the match a 'must-win' game last week, Kay insisted that despite the dropped points Oakley were 'still in the hunt' to avoid the drop from the Premier League.

'Dundonald and Blairgowrie have still got to play each other twice, both have got hard team still to play and both are struggling,' he said.

"We"ve just got to keep going to try to win our games. If we got to 21 points we would give ourselves a chance. Another three or four winsd would do us.'

Elsewhere, Kelty Hearts went down to a 4-2 Super League defeat at Whitburn despite goals from Tam McGeorge and Graeme Findlay.

Crossgates were beaten 3-0 at third-placed Thornton in the East Central League.

Rosyth Recreation had a boost even though their derby at Steelend was postponed. Title rivals St Andrews dropped two points in their draw at Newburgh but they have gone above Recs on goal difference and still have a game in hand.

Saturday"s fixtures: East Super Bukta Teamwear.com League – Kelty Hearts v Bathgate Thistle. East Central Bukta Teamwear.com League – Newburgh v Crossgates Primrose, Steelend v Bankfoot. Kick-offs 2.30pm.