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

Irvine Meadow 1 Darvel 2 as Caldwell double extends gap at top of the table

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