Rossvale rock rivals to maintain promotion bid

Brian McGinty’s men went into the match knowing that nothing other than three points would suffice against one of the four sides ahead of them in the Central First Division standings at kick-off time.

They got off to the perfect start by taking the lead on 10 minutes, Euan Baird running through to lob the ball over the keeper before rolling it into the empty net.

Kirk Forbes doubled the lead from the penalty spot on 38 minutes and with nine minutes left a brilliant Craig Holmes run set up the chance for Steven Seaton to round the keeper and seal victory.

Boss McGinty was delighted with what he said was the best overall performance since he came to the club in March.

He said: “It was important that we didn’t lose but I did feel before the game that we really needed to win to keep ourselves in with a shout.

“We’ve drawn far too many we should have won so when we go to play the likes of St Roch’s we really need to be beating them and thankfully we did that on Saturday.

“The front two, Seaton and Euan Baird, were phenomenal with just the energy and work-rate.

“St Roch’s had a wee spell at the start of the second half as we suspected they might with us being 2-0 up, but we defended really well. Steven Tart had probably his best game since he came to the club and as a team we were exceptional.

“But we’ve got to go and carry that on now. To get promoted you need to put runs together and we’ve not done that so it’s important that we carry on what we did on Saturday.”

Rossvale, now up to fourth in the table, play McGinty’s old club Bellshill Athletic at Ashfield this Saturday, kick-off 1.45pm.