'He's a fantastic young player': Kirkcaldy & Dysart boss Craig Ness praises top scorer John Smith after seeing off Rosyth 2-0

Smith, 23, broke the deadlock on 52 minutes when he slipped the ball past keeper Matthew Wallace from six yards after Mark Wilkie’s free-kick had been headed across goal by Dan Hall.

The YM secured the win on 61 minutes when Rab Kinnaird shot home from the edge of the box after Smith’s initial close-range effort had been saved.

Despite then having Jason Nouri sent off for a second booking two minutes later, Kirkcaldy held on to go seventh with 23 points from 15 fixtures.

Asked about goal hero Smith, K&D gaffer Craig Ness told the Fife Free Press: “John’s a fantastic young player. His attitude and work-rate are fantastic.

“For the amount of goals he scores, he doesn’t actually play in a massively forward area. He plays more off the wider area but he has a great knack of getting goals and we’re very lucky to have him.

“I was delighted to get the win on Saturday and delighted to get the three points. It was a fantastic result."

Ness said he understood his side’s slow start, having not played a league game for four weeks.

“The first half played out the way I thought it would with lack of game-time,” he added.

“The guys struggled to get any tempo. Rosyth looked sharper than us, match-fitter than us. They had played a lot of games over the winter period whereas we’ve not, although they didn’t create much.

“We went in at half-time, tweaked a few things and the guys were excellent in the second half and scored at the right times.

“I just felt that a lot of times in the first half, we kind of sat off Rosyth in the middle of the park, our middle three versus their middle three.

“We didn’t get tight enough to them. We allowed them to control the game and control the ball, so I just asked our midfield three to get a wee bit closer to their men and stop Rosyth building up any periods of possession.

“Our two wide guys weren’t close enough to Lewis Elder through the middle, so I asked them to get a wee bit closer when we played it up to Lewis, and we did that.

“We managed to start linking up play and building possession for ourselves.

“Jason’s sending-off was a result of two bookings from challenges which maybe he wouldn’t have made if he were a wee bit sharper through games.

“We stood firm after that and could have scored another couple of goals.”

The YM host second division leaders Bo’ness Athletic in the King Cup’s second round this Saturday, with kick-off at 1.30pm.

Ness said: “Bo’ness are absolutely flying in the division below. They’ll be in our league next year. They have been bringing in players from higher divisions so it will be a very, very hard game, but I think we’re on one defeat in the last 10 games so we’re going into it with a bit of confidence.

“We fancy our chances against anybody at home.”