Neilston co-manager John Paul Dow heaped praise on his rock solid defence and insists there is much more to come from his side after they extended their unbeaten run with a hard-fought draw against Rossvale. 

The Farmer’s Boys, who were forced to see out the match against high-flying Vale with nine men, are now unbeaten in their last five matches, picking up two wins and three draws and Dow reckons the dig and character shown to secure the point shows just how far his Neilston side can go.

It was end to end stuff early on as both side’s started well with both keepers producing fine stops to keep it level. 

The Brig O’ Lea side went closest when Craig Patterson wriggled his way through the defence to lay it off for Cameron Haddow whose effort had the beating of the Vale keeper but was cleared off the line.

From that clearance, Rossvale burst forward on a break which saw Neilston reduced to 10 men.

Robbie Halliday was deemed to have been the last man when he brought down Vale’s tricky winger, however Neilston did well to continue pushing forward and had chances to open the scoring either side of the break with Patterson carving out a number of chances for himself. 

Dow’s men were under the cosh for lengthy periods in a tough second half as the visitors looked to make their man advantage count but they couldn’t break down a resilient and well drilled defence. 

Neilston were pinned back for large parts of the second half and were forced to see out the final minutes with nine men after substitute Kieran McDade was shown a straight red for a late tackle.

But keeper Marc Wilson and his defence refused to be beaten as the home side kept their unbeaten run intact. 

And Dow was quick to credit his backline.

He said: “I thought our defence was absolutely superb. After being down to 10 men after just 20 minutes, the result shows this. My defence and Marc in goal were outstanding and hopefully that continues.

“When we went down to 10 men we were still right in the game. They were creating chances, but so were we. It really could have went either way. The boys were great.”

Neilston now have a run of games against teams below them in the league and while Dow and fellow co-manager Martin Campbell refuse to get ahead of themselves, they are confident of continuing their impressive run of form. 

Dow added: “We’ve got a few games against teams below us in the league now so it’s a chance to maybe go and pick up more points and continue building our momentum.”