Two county sides are still locked in battle to clinch promotion places

Apr 23 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

CARLUKE Rovers and Blantyre Vics will fight it out for two of the three promotion spots from the Central League Second Division.

And Royal Albert are also in with an outside chance of making it into the promotion places.

But Vics, who signed Ryan McAloon from Wishaw, threw away a chance to cut Perthshire’s four-point lead when they surprisingly lost 1-0 to struggling Newmains United on Monday.

That result put additional pressure on Vics going into their home game against Forth last night (Wednesday), with the prospect of a crunch head-to-head with leaders Perthshire in Glasgow on Saturday.

Steve Mackie hit the only goal of the game for Newmains, who bounced back from Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Carluke Rovers.

Stewart Arnott and Kris Jarvie were the men on target, taking Rovers’ unbeaten run to six games.

Andy Noble picked up an ankle knock in the game, and Paul Ross is still out with a broken arm as Rovers head for Greenock on Saturday.

Royal Albert held league-leaders Perthshire to a 0-0 scoreline at half-time, and had a strong penalty claim rejected five minutes before the interval.

They failed to turn up in the second period as the Glaswegians knocked four past them, but with only two defeats in their last nine, the Larkhall side have a chance of promotion.

Albert head for Newmains on Saturday and host Blantyre Vics on Monday.

Despite Gordon Murphy scoring after two minutes Forth Wanderers were held 1-1 at home to Greenock in what manager Paul Anderson described as “a disappointing draw”.

Wishaw lost 4-0 at St Roch’s and head for Dunipace on Saturday.

Monday’s scheduled home clash against Forth was called off – because North Lanarkshire Council hadn’t lined the sports centre’s pitch in time.