Vale of Leithen 6

Creetown 0

Kenny Paterson at Victoria Park

Manager Chris Anderson has promised Vale of Leithen will be ready for whatever East Kilbride throw at his in-form side in the Scottish Cup.

Kilby have won all eight games in the Lowland League so far and have Scottish Cup form having made the fifth round of the Scottish Cup last season before being narrowly knocked out by Celtic.

But with Vale making it four wins on the trot after a thumping South Challenge Cup win over Creetown and James Elliot, Sean Stewart and Jay Stevens expected to return this weekend, Anderson and his squad will go to K Park in confident mood.

Anderson said: “We know East Kilbride will be a big challenge. They have won every game in the league so far but we are also in good form.

“We have had them watched so will have plenty knowledge about East Kilbride before the game.

“We will be prepared and have nothing to lose.”

Vale’s South Challenge Cup tie with South League strugglers Creetown looked a perfect warm up ahead of the East Kilbride game.

And they started the game at a pace that Creetown were unable to deal with.

The homesters were 3-0 up within 18 minutes as Steven Lynch’s header, Tommy Patterson’s first goal for Vale and Kevin Motion’s rasping 25 yard shot looked to set Vale up for a potentially record-breaking win.

But wayward finishing and some good goalkeeping from Creetown stopper Callum Murray meant Vale were unable to add to their total before half time.

Anderson introduced new signing Ross Lamb, who left Gala Fairydean Rovers earlier in the month, at half time but Vale started the second period in lacklustre fashion, with victory already secure.

Greg Jarvie’s long range effort was held by Andy McQueen as Creetown had their only on-target shot of the game, but seconds later Blair Atkinson found the bottom corner past the away side’s static backline to make it 4-0.

Patterson scored his second after John Scott-Mercer saw two efforts blocked, with the ball ricocheting into the path of the left back who added the fifth with 11 minutes to go.

And there was still time for Atkinson to convert Ainslie Hunter’s perfect cross with a superb header for his sixth goal of the season.

Anderson added: “The positives were that a number of players got the chance to contribute and both Tommy and Blair got a couple of goals each.

“We also got Daniel O’Donnell on the pitch in the second half, who has been missing through injury.”

Vale of Leithen: A. McQueen, J. Scott-Mercer, T. Patterson, S. Lynch, R. Brady, R. Manson (R Lamb 45), L. McIntosh, A. Hunter, B. Atkinson, K. McLeod (D O’Donnell 67), K. Motion.