Kilsyth Rangers stay top with Blantyre win

The visitors arrived on a high after knocking Bo’ness United out of the Scottish Junior Cup the previous week.

But it was a decisive and fairly smooth passage to taking the three points with the result was seldom in doubt once Rangers had gone ahead.

For mid-December the Duncansfield pitch looked in fine condition as Rangers looked to pick up from their demolition of Cumbernauld the previous week.

First try came from Nicky Prentice who put in a low shot which was saved by Scott Law.

Gary Kelly then had the ball in the net after Law spilled a shot but he was clearly offside.

Blantyre hit back and had a fine effort come off the base of the post.

But Rangers were doing most of the attacking and broke through after 15 minutes whebn Franny Kelly put the ball over the keeper.

It looked like it might be another big score as Rangers turned on the style.

But several good chances were missed and it remained 1-0 at the interval.

The second half began very much as the first had ended with Rangers dominating, although Blantyre were far from out of it.

Gary Kelly picked up a knock and went off, replaced by Danny O’Neill just on the hour.

A few minutes later Franny Kelly finished off a great attacking move with his second goal of the day.

It now looked like Rangers might now run up another big score with Paul McBride having a great chance, and several other near misses.

Another two changes were made with Corey Pearson and Iain Diack coming on for the home side.

The intensity of the game had dropped somewhat as the visitors seemed resigned to the fact that they were taking nothing from this match and when Prentice scored a third goal with a fine solo effort the game was over as a contest.