17/07/2021  |  League

Vale of Leithen   0  v  4  Cumbernauld Colts

On a beautiful Summer's day, the Colts headed down to Innerleithen to play Vale of Leithen for the first game of the 2021/22 Lowland League season. This would see the beginning of a new era at the Colts with a number of new faces around the club.

Vale’s home ground, Victoria Park, was in perfect condition for the game and allowed both teams to play how they wanted with ease. The last couple of times these clubs had faced up, the Colts had run out comfortable victors.

The game kicked off in sweltering heat but despite this the game had a good tempo to it; although it took 25 minutes for the deadlock to be broken by the Colts skipper Stephen O’Neill. O’Neill managed to break up some Vale possession around their box and set himself up for a caressed finish into the bottom right corner.

Vale stayed calm after this and tried to break out on the counter attack a couple of times but struggled to test Alexander Marshall in the Cumbernauld goal.

It didn’t take long for the Colts captain to bag himself his second of the game. After a driven through ball from midfielder Murray, O’Neill entered the box from the right hand side and rifled the ball across Andrew McQueen in the Vale goal and into the top left corner to double his side's lead.

A third came just a couple of minutes later through new signing Sean Winter. After some pinball from a corner, Winter managed to be in the right place at the right time to tap the ball home and put the Colts 3-0 up before half time.

Soon after the break, things went from bad to worse for Vale as Ben Brown was sent off for a late sliding challenge on Colts half time substitute Lewis Warnock. After this Vale went into a very deep lying 4-4-1.

With 5 minutes to go, it was time for the big story of the game as Danny Hatferld came on to score his first senior goal of his career. He broke through Vale’s defense and dribbled past Andrew McQueen before blasting in the Colts fourth and final goal.

Hatfield had been playing with the club's 2003 section before breaking through to the first team this Summer. The Colts striker has impressed the management team in pre-season, gaining his first professional contract and scoring against Blantyre Victoria.

After a couple of minutes of injury time the referee blew the final whistle on the game giving the Colts a 4-0 victory.