McBookie Championship

IRVINE VICTORIA 0

ROSSVALE 0

By Christopher Dodds

UPBEAT boss Brian McLuckie was full of praise for his Irvine Vics side as they battled to a heroic 0-0 draw against promotion chasers Rossvale at Victoria Park. That was something he admitted he would have “bitten someone’s hand off for.”

The Westenders had a penalty claim waved away midway through the first half after Hamish McKinlay was played through on goal, when one on one with the goalie he nicked the ball before Vale keeper Jamie Donnelly clattered into him to as the Vics dug out protested for a spot kick.

Ross McKenzie was played through after McKinlay beat the offside trap from the diagonal. Racing down on goal he dragged his shot wide from the right hand side.

In a frantic final 10 minutes, some do-or-die defending from Vics kept close range efforts from Chris Duff and Matt Niven out, much to Rossvale’s dismay.

After the match, a delighted McLuckie added: “I thought we were outstanding today against a good side. We’ve been unlucky, the last three games we’ve played teams higher up the league and been unlucky not to take anything from those games. It’s a huge improvement from the start of the season, we’re not conceding as many goals as we were, we limited them to very little all over the park, it was a really pleasing performance.”

VICS: McDonald; Craig, Gilmour, Holden, Donnelly, Loughlin, Morrow, Warnock, McKenzie, McKinlay, Skeoch. Subs: Singleton, Smith, McGuire, Farrell, Adam.