Kelty Hearts faced off against West Scotland side Dumbarton at New Central Park. Where the Maroon Machine bested The Sons 3 goals to 1.
With the loss from Elgin still lingering on supporters minds it was crucial for Kelty to get back to winning ways and make NCP a difficult place to come. After a fairly even opening 15 minutes Ali Omar’s shot is blocked by the unknowing hand of Alex Ferguson to award Dumbarton a Penalty which was scored by McIntosh.
Just 12 seconds after the restart Robbie Cole is brought down at the edge of the box and Kelty are awarded a free-kick. With Shanley and Hislop standing over it, Jamie Hislop stepped up and curled the ball around the wall and into the bottom corner to bring the game level at 1-1.
Closely followed in the 20th mintue Robbie Cole ran onto the ball from Alex Ferguson to lay it into the path of Lewis Moore who managed to slip his defender and completely flat foot the keeper to slot it in at the near post. It was an action packed 45 minutes for both sets of fans with the ref calling an end to the first half seeing Kelty go in ahead at the break.
The second half much like the first did not disappoint for action with Dumbarton getting off to a good start with plenty of chances, however Kelty’s defence were up to the task. In the 73rd minute Shanley manages to get on the end of a slack pass back to the keeper from Ali Omar and knock it past the keeper to the byline. Shanley got his head up and caught the on coming Innes Murray who dummied the shot and left it for Alex Ferguson to put it past the out stretched Aidan Rice to extend Kelty’s lead.
In the dying minutes of the game Shanley played the ball through to the over lapping Thomas Falconer who managed to touch it inside past Webster and get the shot off, it wasn’t meant to be for Falconer with Aidan Rice pulling off a great save to give Dumbarton a shred of hope left in the game. However it was not meant to be for “The Sons” with the ref calling an end to the game shortly after to confirm 3 point remain at NCP and see Kelty go 4th in the league.
Following Saturday afternoon’s game Thomas O’Ware told Kelty Hearts TV: “I thought we were excellent, I believe we deserved the win. Our reaction to going a goal down and immediately go up and score from Jamie’s (Hislop) free-kick is a great way to get back into the game.”
“Twice we haven’t shown up to games and we had to drill it into them on Tuesday, It was a real shock for the players but these are the standards we need from our squad to do well.”
Written by: Ethan Cessford