Johnstone Burgh ended their winless and goalless run with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over bottom side Darvel.

The first chance of the match came within the first couple of minutes from a Burgh corner. The corner was met by centre-back Danny O'Neill but his header flew over the bar.

With a quarter of an hour played, the visitors took the lead through Scott Walker. The Vale man leapt above Burgh's Ross Davidson to meet Leon Murphy's cross and head it in off the near post.

The remainder of the half saw Burgh mounting the pressure on the away side, but Darvel's defending was resolute and prevented us creating any chances of note.

A few minutes after the restart, Burgh came agonisingly close to an equaliser. As Darvel struggled to clear a corner, the ball was put back into the box and dropped to Max Kerr at the back post. At an acute angle, his fiercely-struck effort beat keeper Andrew Wilson but Archie Graham threw his body at it to clear it off the line. There were a number of appeals from Burgh players for handball, but the referee waved away the protests.

In the 54th minute Burgh, again, came close to an equaliser when Fraser Mullen's cross was met by the head of Allan MacKenzie, but the striker could only head it over the bar.

On 65 minutes, Darvel had a chance to double their lead as they broke away on the counter, but Scott Lewis's effort was struck tamely, and Luke Scullion made a comfortable save at his near post.

Burgh countered Darvel's counter attack and, following a scramble in the visitors' penalty area, the ball finally fell to Kian Gilday who struck over from 20 yards.

The game was not starting to open up with the hosts looking for a way back into the tie and the away side looking to kill the game off.

With 70 minutes played, Burgh were awarded a penalty when Stuart McCann's cross was handballed by Leon Murphy. Following a lengthy stoppage due to substitutions, Fraser Mullen eventually stepped up in the 77th minute to take the penalty. Despite the delay, the Burgh right back kept his composure and sent Wilson the wrong way to bring Burgh level.

Burgh almost took the lead in the 83rd minute when Del Esplin's cross into the box found Ciaran Diver, but his header was saved by Wilson.

Two minutes later, Leon Murphy flashed an effort across goal for the away side.

Both teams were searching desperately for a winner, and Burgh almost got it in the third minute of added time when Mullen's cross was directed goalward by Stuart McCann but his header was saved.

In the fourth minute of added time, Burgh did find the decisive goal. Fraser Mullen's cross was half-cleared to Aaron Mason on the edge of the box. He took one touch to set himself up before driving a low effort into the net.

With the clock still ticking, both sides came close to adding to the scoresheet. Darvel's Leon Murphy struck just over the bar from around 35 yards, having seen Scullion off his line. Mason and Malky McDonald both had chances at the other end to extend our lead, but both fired off target.

Half Time: 0-1

Full Time: 2-1

Goals: Mullen 77(p), Mason 90+4

Starting XI: Scullion, Mullen, Gilday, Eadie, O'Neill, Esplin (C), Christie, Davidson, MacKenzie, Smith, Kerr

Man Of The Match: Fraser Mullen

It was a tricky afternoon against a very good Darvel side who were difficult to break down, but we dug deep and we got stronger as the game went on. Today's result sees us remain third in the league, level on points with second-placed Troon but we have two games in hand on them.

Next week we meet Shotts Bon Accord for the first time this season as we welcome them to Keanie Park. Kick off is at 2pm.

A selection of images can be found below. More images can be found here.