Tweedmouth Amateurs 1

Tweeddale Rovers 3

Blair Meikle at The Five Arches

A MASSIVE three points in the battle for Border Amateur A Division survival went the way of Tweeddale last Saturday.

The win moves them off the bottom and within a point of Tweedmouth, with 3 games in hand on Saturday’s losing team.

It was the result of a workmanlike performance, which they married with producing well worked goals at crucial times in the match.

Naz McDonald opened the scoring expertly with a lob, before Tweedmouth upped their game and levelled through Gary Walters shortly before half time.

But Rovers stuck to the task and Greig Shortreed edged them in front again with Grant Wilson making sure of it shortly after.

Tweeddale began with a purpose with the home side taking longer to get going. As a result, they found themselves behind when a harmless looking ball fooled Matty Tait into a fresh air swipe, allowing McDonald to run onto it and lob the keeper.

After a promising opening, the visitors were forced to retreat more and more towards half time with Tweedmouth pushing on. They managed to stand up to it pretty well, but conceded just as they thought they might hold on until half time.

After a cross from the right was partially cleared by Sean Johnson, the ball was worked back in and fell to Walters who calmly side footed into the bottom corner.

The break probably came at a bad time for Tweedmouth as they failed to keep their momentum going after it, even while attacking down the slope.

To be fair, they were up against a robust looking defence which had the outstanding Blair Moffat and Johnson at its base, and equally stubborn full backs in Finlay Moffat and Moray Macleod.

With their colleagues swatting aside Tweedmouth attacks at the other end, Shortreed and Wilson found the strikes required to turn one point into three.

The former got his first goal since returning from injury in a move initiated by Finlay Moffat, cutting onto his favoured left foot and tucking it into the far corner.

Blair Moffat almost headed a third minutes after but Wilson made sure that would not be a pivotal missed chance with another left footer.

A short corner with Shortreed nearly went awry but after recovering the ball he smashed a shot across the hapless keeper.

Tweedmouth began to assert themselves again towards the end, desperate not to let their relegation rivals take all of the points, but it would have taken something special to get past Moffat and Co.

Tweeddale: Bertram, F Moffat, B Moffat, Johnson, Macleod (Gray), McDonald, R Meikle, B Meikle, Collin, Wilson, Shortreed (Mullins). Not used: Smith.