Shotts end five-game losing streak with win over Blantyre

Shotts boss John McKeown hopes his side has turned the corner after a thumping 3-1 win over Blantyre Vics in the West of Scotland First Division arrested a run of five straight defeats.

Goals from PJ O’Donnell, Chris Kelly and Kyle Richford gave the Bonny a precious win that leaves them second bottom of the table, but cut the gap on Vics and safety to two points, with three games in hand. Winning even two of those could leave Shotts mid-table.

McKeown said: “It was a good, much-needed victory. We got a good point last Tuesday night away to Drumchapel, [3-3] who are going really well, when we showed a lot of fight and character, and it was the same on Saturday.

“We stuck together, which is all you can ask for when you’re in bad form, and I’m hoping we’ve turned the corner now with four points in four days, which is decent.

“It was a deserved win. Over the piece we had the majority of chances.

"Don’t get me wrong, our goalkeeper Johnny Murdoch has done well with a penalty save early on in the game, but we caused Blantyre a few problems, scored a fantastic goal to take the lead from PJ O’Donnell, who cut across the box and finished low and hard from about 20 yards, against his former club.

“Sub Chris Kelly put us 2-0 up, Blantyre pulled a goal back and we went down to 10 men when Dean Sutherland came on as a sub and got sent off about 30 seconds later with a reckless challenge, but Kyle Richford scored the decisive third goal.”

Shotts travel to Gartcairn tonight before hosting Bonnyton Thistle on Saturday.

McKeown said: “Gartcairn are probably the league favourites now, they’ve hit form at the right time, and on Saturday it’s a proverbial six-pointer against Bonnyton because we have a lot of games to catch up on them. It’s