Lowland League round-up: Spartans close in on leaders; Uni go down against Rangers; Tranent suffer last-gasp penalty heartache

Spartans continued their climb up the Lowland League table with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Cumbernauld Colts this afternoon.

It was Dougie Samuel's men fourth win on the trot and pushes the Ainslie Park outfit up to fourth in the standings, now just four points adrift of leaders East Kilbride.

The hosts finally grabbed the initiative eight minutes before the half-time interval, Mikey Allan with a simple tap-in after the Colts defence failed to clear a corner.

Kevin Waugh doubled the Capital men's lead on the stroke of half-time when he headed home and Jamie Dishington wrapped up a comfortable victory with a third 11 minutes from time.

Jamie Dishington scored in the 3-0 win over Cumbernauld Colts. Picture: Mark Brown.

Elsewhere, Edinburgh University slumped to their 11th defeat of the campaign after a 3-1 defeat to Rangers B.

Dorian Ogunro's men fell behind in the 13th minute at the Ibrox side's training ground as Connor Young's curled effort went in via the post.

But the students, who had earlier struck the woodwork, levelled on the hour mark when David Maskrey got on the end of Keir Foster's cross to power home his header.

Rangers restored their lead 13 minutes from time through Aaron Lyall's well-placed finish and Robbie Ure added a third late on as he rounded goalkeeper Cammy Quate for a simple finish.

Meanwhile, Tranent missed a last minute-penalty as they went down 1-0 to Celtic B at Foresters Park.

Joey Dawson's first-half effort was enough to give the Glasgow youngsters all three points in East Lothian, but Jamie Docherty sent his spot-kick high and wide with just seconds to spare as Colin Nish's men failed to take anything for their endeavours.