Dumfries and District Amateur Football League

Lochmaben Make it Two In A Row

Lochmaben made it two cup wins in a row when they lifted the Colin’s Carpets sponsored British Legion Cup at Galabank on Wednesday night. In a game of two halves they defeated Lochar Thistle by three goals to two in an exciting game. Both teams met in a cracker of a game exactly a week ago at Palmerston and this match again showed the quality of both sides with flowing, attacking football to the fore. The opening spell of the match saw both teams a bit cagey, slowly feeling their way into the game. Lochmaben were the first to make an impression when a Gary White through ball dissected the Lochar defence and Charles Common who has been prolific this season ran through and put the ball past Lochar keeper Alan Gordon. This seemed to be the wake-up call that Thistle required and they started to take the game to their opponents. Terry Jardine had their best chance in this spell but he mis-timed his header and the chance was wasted. All this came after some good work from Craig Jones and Mike McGauchie wide on the right.  The Lochar pressure paid off in the 12^th minute when they scored from a corner, Rabbie Blyth being the man on the mark with a bullet header from 7 yards out. The match really opened out after this and it was end to end stuff with both teams creating openings but failing to make the best of the opportunities. The best of these fell to Steven Hislop but his shot was well saved by Gordon. In the 21^st minute Lochar then took the lead and again the goal came from a corner. This time a Jim Brown in-swinger was only palmed clear by Craig Scobie the Lochmaben keeper and Rabbie Blyth was on hand to head home off the underside of the bar to make it 2-1 with his second goal of the game.

The remainder of the first half was end to end stuff with Lochar mainly in the ascendency. They carved out several good chances but failed to trouble Scobie with any shots on target. Lochamben had their moments as well, their best chance came when Hislop dribbled past several Lochar defenders and laid a perfect square ball across the box but unfortunately there were no takers and the danger was cleared by young defender Scott Woodward.

The first period of the second half was not as fluent as the first with both teams guilty of giving away a lot of petty fouls and the flow of the game was stifled for a while. Neither of the teams could sustain any pressure and the game became bogged down in midfield. Gradually as the half wore on Lochamben started to get the upper hand with both Ross Kuklinski and Steven Hislop starting to get some time on the ball. Lochar then had to make an enforced change and lost influential midfielder David Patterson due to an eye problem. Lochar gambled and replaced him with an extra striker, James Rogerson. The shuffle of personnel did not have the desired effect and after the initial impetus of the change had expired Lochamben gained control of the important midfield area. During this period both Russell Paisley and Gary White had opportunities to level the match, Paisley headed into the ground which took the pace off his attempt and White fired high and wide from a good position on the right. With ten minutes left Lochmaben levelled the scores. Charles Common controlled the ball wide on the left and fed Keith Houston who drove into the box. Gordon came out to meet him and the angle seemed to favour the keeper but Houston kept his head and slotted the ball past the keeper. Terry Jardine then nearly won it for Lochar with a dipping shot that crashed off the bar. This was to be Lochar’s last decent opportunity, Lochar heads dropped  and  at the other end Hislop and Kuklinski both had chances to grab the winner. With extra time looming Lochmaben grabbed the winner with a well taken goal. Houston, who had been having a quiet game until the last ten minutes made a good run on the right hand side. He then delivered an inch perfect cross for White to head home from 8 yards out.  The final whistle came a few minutes later with Lochar unable to respond.

After the match, sponsor Colin McBurnie presented the trophies along with Maurice Sproat the league chairman. Graham Lockhart gave a short speech thanking all concerned with special thanks going to Annan Athletic for the use of Galabank. A tired Lochar team collected their medals before winning captain Alan Maxwell lifted the cup for Lochmaben. The remainder of the team then collected their winners medals. There were several candidates for the Man of the Match award and sponsor Colin McBurnie selected Lochar striker William Dempster for his tireless running througout the match.