Irvine Vics boss Dougie MacDuff insists Saturday's 2-0 win against stuffy Royal Albert gave him just as much pleasure as leathering Lesmahagow.
Late goals from Franny Kilpatrick and James Maxwell pushed the Westenders over the line at Tileworks Park after a real battle in the heat.
And boss MacDuff reckons it was a telling test of his players’ character on the back of the previous weekend's 8-0 spanking of the Gow.
He said: “After last week’s game I told the players to go out and enjoy themselves and the experience of winning.
“But I made it clear our attitude had to be spot on coming into this game because I knew Albert would make us work hard for everything.
“First half we huffed and puffed without really creating too many chances.
“We stepped it up after the break though and thankfully the pressure paid off with a couple of goals near the end.
“We had to put a real shift in but I’ll take winning like that every week. Winning 8-0 is fantastic but 1-0 is enough too and you get the same number of points.
“In terms of how we went about our business and kept at it I’m delighted. In this game you can’t get too happy because the carpet can quickly be pulled from under your feet.”
MacDuff made two changes from the starting 11 that hammered Gow with Bobby Colligan and Kevin Adam in for Lewis McCracken and John McLaughlan respectively.
Neither keeper had a save of real note to make in a pretty drab first half but Albert goalkeeper Lewis Melvin was the busier man after the break, twice denying Adam with fine reflex saves.
Vics did enjoy one let-off in 52 minutes when a speculative lob from 35 yards clipped the top of Owen McCallum’s crossbar.
That aside though, Vics looked the more dangerous team and they eventually made the breakthrough in 78 minutes when Kilpatrick planted a downhead header into the net from substitute Maxwell’s pin-point cross.
Melvin pulled off another fine stop to prevent McLaughlan quickly doubling the scoreline but the keeper could do nothing to stop Maxwell turning home a cross in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Vics have now won three of their opening four WoSFL Third Division fixtures and will hope to continue their impressive start to the campaign at home to Finnart tonight.
MacDuff added: “We will need to be at our best if we want to keep our run going,”
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