Dumfries and District Amateur Football League

 

 

An inform and fired up Lochmaben defeated a jaded looking Maxwelltown Thistle in the McQueen Engravers  Tayleurian cup final at the David Keswick Centre on Wednesday night.  It all started well for Maxwelltown when they took the lead in the 5^th minute with Sean Kearney firing a superb 25 yard free kick high into the top corner. Their lead didn’t last long though. Lochmaben fired back two minutes later when Charles Common who is on a hot goalscoring streak at the moment slipped his marker to fire home from 12 yards out. Thistle then lost midfielder Kieren Smith with a nasty looking knee injury and they had to re-shuffle bringing Chris Cook on to play on the left. Lochmaben looked dangerous, especially striker Common and it was no surprise when in the 16^th minute he made some space in the box and fired a low angled shot towards goal. Keeper Gavin Hughes failed to deal with it well enough and the ball spun along the line for Dougie McRobert to fire home despite the close attention from Chris Craik. Maxwelltown hit back and made several chances the best of which saw Craig Lavan fail to find the target with a back post header with the keeper stranded.  Lochmaben keeper Craig Scobie then saved well from a Kearney volley after some excellent work from James Smith wide on the right. Lochmaben were by far the sharper and it was Common who was causing Maxwelltown the most trouble, he tested Hughes again before Maxwelltown grabbed an equaliser against the run of play. This came when Tommy Jardine launched a free kick deep into the box where Kearney directed a powerful header goalwards, the ball crashed off the bar into the six yard box and Ross Halliday was first to react, heading home from close range.  Both teams had further chances before referee Robert Morrison blew for half time with some 11 minutes of injury time being played in an extended first half.

 

It didn’t take long in the second half for Lochmaben to restore their lead. In the 48^th minute Shane Watson found Common with a cross from the left wing. The striker beat his marker to head the ball downwards past the despairing hands of keeper Hughes. Lochmaben continued to boss the game although they failed to create as many clean cut chances as they did in the first half. Thistle were well off the pace and made two changes on the hour mark in an attempt to gain a foothold in the match. But it was Lochmaben who looked sharper and Dougie McRobert  had a good opportunity to put the game out of Thistle’s reach when he was put through by Common, but the big striker hit his shot straight at the keeper and the chance was gone. Maxwelltown committed more players forward in the last twenty minutes but this left gaps at the back and Lochmaben were quick to exploit them, with Cammy Thorburn coming into the game more and more. With nine minutes left a Lochmaben attack down the left resulted in midfielder Keith Houston being fouled in the box, the referee had no choice but to point to the spot. Thorburn took the  penalty and made no mistake with a powerful drive low into the left hand corner.  The game was over as a contest and when the referee blew the final whistle there was no doubt that Lochmaben were deserved winners.

 

Maurice Sproat and Jimmy Kirk did the honours with the presentations and Lochmaben player/manager and captain Russell Paisley received the cup on behalf of the winners. The man of the match award went to young Shane Watson who had a fine game in midfield although any one of a number of the winning team could have picked up the award. The league would like to thank the match officials and the staff at the Keswick Centre who managed to get the game on at short notice.

Russell Paisley with the Cup                                       Man of the Match - Shane Watson

Lochmaben pick up their winners medals

Runners-up Maxwelltown Thistle before the game

The Match officals receive their trophies

The draw for the Tayleurian Cup was made at the New Bazaar on the 28th February 2009 by members of Terregles Athletic AFC supervised by S.Todd and Peter Meechan.

 

Lochmaben 4-0 FC Dynamo Star

YMCA 5-1 Kirkconnel

 

Maxwelltown Thistle 5-2 Lochar Thistle

Morton Thistle 2-1 YMCA 

Lochmaben 7-2 Terregles Athletic

Upper Annandale 10-0 First Base Dynamos

 

Maxwelltown Thistle  2-0 Upper Annandale 

Morton  5-7  Lochmaben