IRVINE Victoria boss Stuart MacDuff heaped praise on his side for keeping their winning run going.

The Vics had been without a victory so far in their West of Scotland Football League Third Division campaign, but that all changed after their remarkable 2-1 win over Ardeer Thistle on Saturday, August 31.

Despite their league struggles, MacDuff's side went into the match in good form - having defeated Pumpherston in the Challenge Cup and won the Marymass derby in recent weeks.

It looked like the brief run may be coming to an end in Stevenston when Ardeer took a first half lead courtesy of Andy McGregor.

However, with only five minute of regulation time remaining, Dylan Boyce drew the visitors level.

That paved the way for a dramatic climax to the game, with James Maxwell notching a late winner deep into time added on to hand the Vics all three points.

Speaking to the club's own social media team after the game, MacDuff was delighted to keep the good form going - even if he was less then pleased with the performance.

He commented: “It’s a great result for us, we’ve started the season with a draw and a few defeats in the league – then we’ve had the win in the cup and win in the Marymass derby.

“This was us just trying to add to that wee run we’ve started. I said to the boys it is really important that we do now start picking up points in the league.

“That was the goal today. Performance-wise I wasn’t really happy, we played into Ardeer’s hands where they allowed us to play long and that’s not really how we’ve been playing recently.

“But, smash and grab, you take the three points up the road and the boys are buzzing.”

Now, the manager is hoping his side can turn performances into points, having felt hard done by to have left most matches empty handed thus far.

MacDuff added: “The results we’ve had have been unlucky. We probably should have had points out of most of the games – we just couldn’t get the results and get over the line.

“The boys have been working really hard at training, everyone contributed today, the cup win has definitely helped us kick on.

“Hopefully teams will now see that where we are sitting in the league is a bit false.”

Full match highlights and reaction are available via the Irvine Victoria YouTube channel at youtube.com/watch?v=ZAgVrw7ki1g.