Peeblesshire News | Sport | Rovers go Forth' in the Scottish Cup

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Friday, 10th October, 2008 12:30

Rovers go Forth' in the Scottish Cup

By Neil Gilchrist

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Forth Athletic 2 v 4 Leithen Rovers

Leithen Rovers progressed into the 3rd Round of the Scottish Amateur Cup when they defeated Forth Athletic from the Stirling District League.

Rovers' started in confident mood and had much the better of the early exchanges on the extremely tight Forth home park and deservedly carved out the opening goal in the 7th minute when Crawford's long kick-out was flicked on to by MacIntyre

Who then fed it into the path of Jackson and his first time pass was slotted home by the ever hungry Alan McMath at the near post.

The Innerleithen side didn't have it all their own way and were soon back to all square. A quickly taken throw-in caught them on the back-foot and after a number of failed attempts to clear the danger, the ball found it's way into the Rovers' net, albeit rather fortuitously.

The home side now were enjoying their best spell of the game and were forcing The Rovers' defence into, at times, desperate clearances, and Scott Crawford in the Rovers goal had to be alert on several occasions, to keep the score at 1-1.

Leithen finally settled again and some strong midfield play from Smith and Fleming was beginning to cause problems in the home defence.

Eventually Rovers got themselves in front once more when Tosh Fleming nipped in front of the Forth keeper to direct a Blaikie pass into the net just before half-time.

The home side gave themselves a glimmer from the penalty spot just after the interval when Fleming had adjudged to have fouled.

Their joy lasted no more than a minute. Straight from the centre, Alan McMath collected the ball, ran at the Forth defence and drilled his shot low past the keeper to restore Rovers' advantage.

This seemed to deflate the hosts somewhat and although they tried to find another breakthrough, it was Leithen who looked the more dangerous now.

Robin Shek went agonisingly close as he watched his shot hit the bar before Andy Laurie secured the win, heading home a MacIntyre corner in 68 minutes.

Rovers could have extended their lead with chances from Hastie and Scott going close but enough had been done to ensure Leithen Rovers were in the hat for the Third Round.

Leithen Rovers; Crawford; Scott ( Thomson ), Laurie, Johnston ( Gibb ) and Blaikie; MacIntyre, Smith, Fleming, Shek; Jackson (Hastie ) and McMath.

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