Rossvale edge out landlords Benburb thanks to McNab strike

In a game which had more bookings than efforts on goal, Del McNab’s 35th minute strike was enough to separate the sides.

McNab was unfortunate after only 15 minutes when he shot past from the edge of the box.

Liam McGonigle then found Lewis Crawford overlapping but his effort brought out an easy save for Ross Connelly in the Bens goal.

Two minutes later Bens who came close to scoring when Greg Maitland connected with a Gary Fisher cross, but Jamie Donnelly managed to punch away to safety.

Vale went ahead when a ball over the Bens defence found McGonigle lurking and although his effort was expertly stopped on the line by Connelly, McNab followed in to blast the rebound high into the net.

McNab then played Gary Giffin in to go through on the keeper but Connelly stayed big and saved Giffin’s effort which went out for a corner.

At the other end Bens stuggled to find a way past Matt Niven who was immense in defence.

When they did win a corner Willie McLaren fired in a low cross to the front post which was met by Josh Meechan’s diving header but it went narrowly past.

With 15 minutes to go Bens were reduced to ten men when McLaren was shown a straight red card for his few choice words to the referee off the ball.

But instead of struggling the Bens probably had their best patch in the game for the last few moment that was left.

But Vale kept them out and at the other end Connelly had to make saves from both Giffin and David Leadbetter.

As the game was coming to the end Donnelly found McGonigle 20 yards out and as his shot scraped the crossbar the referee decided that the game was done.

The win moved Vale into eighth spot in the Premiership table, equal in points with the three teams above them.