Lanark United 1-2 Vale of Clyde: League Two champs end season with defeat

On a day when they were presented with the McBookie.com League Two trophy, Lanark United put in a lacklustre performance and ended with a second league defeat of the season when losing 2-1 at home to Vale of Clyde on Saturday, writes Craig Martin.
Lanark United squad celebrate winning League Two (Pic by George Reid)Lanark United squad celebrate winning League Two (Pic by George Reid)
Lanark United squad celebrate winning League Two (Pic by George Reid)

Lanark started fairly confidently and fashioned a chance for Lewis Hill after two minutes but his weak shot was easily saved.

They did however take the lead after eight minutes when a through ball found Shug

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Kerr and as he struggled to get it under control he was fouled in the Vale box at the expense of a penalty.

This time Hill made no mistake as he sent the keeper the wrong way to put Lanark 1-0 up.

Vale showed they were there to try for the win as they put Gareth Hallford under pressure after 15 minutes but a couple of good saves from the keeper and a block from Sam Anderson kept lanark’s lead

intact.

Lanark looked to have doubled their lead when Ian Watt progressed down the right then pulled back the ball for Declan Lafferty to slot home but the ball struck Kerr on the way in to the net with the referee saying he was in an offside position much to the amazement of the big home crowd.

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Lanark had a couple of chances as the half went on with Lafferty having another shot blocked and Kerr having an effort saved but it was the visitors who completed the first half scoring when they were awarded a soft penalty when Dan McHugh was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball and

Fraser scored for 1-1.

The second half saw both sides try for a second goal but a weak Watt header was easily saved by Scott in the Vale goal then Hallford made a good stop from Kerr to keep the scores level.

Good work from Kerr after 55 minutes set PJ O’Donnell free on the Vale goal but again his effort was saved.

Then a driving run by Watt on the right ended with his cutback being cleared.

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Lanark’s final effort on goal came from Stuart Annetts whose strength took him through the Vale defence in the 89th minute but his poor final shot was easily saved.

The final score of the match came in the 90th minute when Vale attacked down the Lanark right and a low ball across goal was stabbed home by Stewart for 2-1 to the visitors.

This was to be Lanark’s second home defeat of the season and the first since mid-August after a quite incredible unbeaten run stretching to 24 matches.