Abbey Vale kicked off 2022 with a comfortable win over Lochar Thistle.
Jordan Muirhead opened the scoring with a fine free-kick after 21 minutes and headed in the second nine minutes later.
And when Max Hughes struck just before the break the game was over as a contest.
Vale co-manager Allan Clark said: “We had some boys who hadn’t played for a month or so but they played well and it was good to get back to it.
“The first 20 or 25 minutes were pretty even and we took control of the first half from there.
“We played some good football and scored some good goals and controlled the rest of the first half from there.
“I thought we controlled the second half before a bit of tiredness crept in but we still saw it out quite comfortably.
“We defended well as a team and I thought we attacked well as a team too so we were happy with the level of performance.
“We had to make a couple of changes due to unavailability and the boys that came in did well and took their chance.”
One of the players coming in was goalkeeper Taylor Hall who has been missing for several weeks due to injury.
Clark said: “He hadn’t played for nearly three months and it was good to get him back.
“His performance levels before he got injured were probably the best he’s been at since he has been at New Abbey so we were really keen to get him back.
“He was delighted to get a clean sheet.”
This weekend the focus turns to the South of Scotland Challenge Cup.
Vale are hoping to go far in the competition and begin their campaign with a home game against Caledonian Braves.
“It’s a trip into the unknown as I’ve not seen them play but it’ll be a hard game.”
