Darvel stormed four points clear at the top of the West of Scotland League Premier Division after a hard-fought 2-1 win at Meadow Park last night.
Ross Caldwell was The Vale hero with a deadly double - his late header cancelling out a superb Rhys Wallace equaliser to seal an excellent away win.
Both sides played the second half with 10-men after referee Calum Haswell flashed red cards at Darvel's Chris McGowan and Meadow's Callum Graham in an explosive end to the opening 45 minutes.
But it was Darvel who edged a tense affair to put daylight between them and second placed Hurlford United who are on Scottish Junior Cup duty this afternoon.
Darvel arrived in Irvine in buoyant mood after their Scottish Cup heroics against Montrose last weekend.
And they took just three minutes to open the scoring, Caldwell meeting a cross from the left eight yards out and smashing the sweetest of shots high into the roof of the net.
Meadow were dealt another blow when playmaker Louis Kerr was forced off with a hamstring injury in 18 minutes, Conor O'Donnell replacing the former Whitletts ace in midfield.
And they were fortunate not to fall further behind on the half hour mark when Andy Stirling burst through on goal only to blaze an effort high over the bar with just Medda keeper Marc Waters to beat.
Darvel were in control but it took a superb last-ditch tackle from Cammy Eadie to prevent Graham from bagging an equaliser against the run of play eight minutes later.
A competitive but fair contest suddenly turned ugly four minutes before half-time when Darvel defender Chris McGowan received his marching orders.
The former Kilwinning Rangers star inexplicably kicked out at Kyle Faulds after whistler Haswell awarded a foul against the Medda player for a fairly innocuous challenge.
The dismissal had the potential to swing the momentum Meadow's way but their numerical advantage lasted all of two minutes.
Confusion reigned at first when Haswell, after consulting his linesman, showed Graham a red card, but word soon spread that the Medda striker had used foul language.
The interval allowed both teams to regroup and, with more space on the park, the game opened up after the restart.
Waters produced a couple of decent saves early on as Darvel looked to double their advantage.
But Meadow looked dangerous going forward too and they drew level with a superb goal on the hour mark.
Wallace, pushed up from right back to a more advanced role, cut inside from the touchline leaving defender Daryll Meggatt in his wake and powered into the penalty box before drilling a low shot past goalkeeper Chris Truesdale.
The hosts' tails were now up and Jamie Martin went close with a curling effort from the edge of the box not long after.
Wallace was a constant out-ball and he continued to pose a menace to the Darvel defence with balls into the box.
With the clock ticking down, Darvel created a few openings and they got the breakthrough they were looking for when Caldwell headed home a corner kick in the 83rd minute.
Substitute Jamie Glasgow almost put the game to bed in the 90th minute when space opened up for him on the left side of the penalty box but Waters made a fine save with his feet.
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