Lauriston Thistle 4-3 Tweeddale Rovers (AET)

THE run had to come to an end at some point.

If you had to choose where it would be though, the South Cup would be your last pick.

Tweeddale Rovers were brought back down to earth after 11 wins on the bounce, by an extra time defeat to Edinburgh side Lauriston Thistle. This was not the place to turn in a lethargic performance, but that’s what happened against a side who were well up for it.

Thistle could have been a few goals up by the time Blair Meikle opened the scoring for Dale.

A strike off the bar bounced down but away from the goal, and Ryan Bertram made two good saves from close range efforts.

It wasn’t all one way traffic and Meikle was played in by Grant Wilson – the keeper came rushing out and Meikle beat him to it.

Goals change games and the momentum was now with Tweeddale. They will be rueing the fact they didn’t go 2-0 up when on top. Jamie Mackay hit the post and Craig Collin also went close with a shot from the edge of the box.

Lauriston’s players began to argue with each other and you sensed that they were about to implode. But then they got a goal to settle them down after a mix up between Blair Moffat and Bertram.

The capital side’s direct and speedy play was a thorn in the side of Rovers all day. And they took the lead when a quick ball over the top was finished first time.

Dale went on the attack and were camped in Thistle’s half for the next ten minutes. The problem was that the next time Lauriston went forward the scored again.

Another counter saw the left winger get to the bye line, and his cross was headed in at the back post.

With less than 20 minutes to play Tweeddale had to dig deep to find whatever was going to get them back into this fixture.

The introduction of Ruaraidh McNaughton injected some life and pace into their play, and it was he who ran on to a pass in the corner to square for Stewart Mullins who had a tap in.

Minutes later a wonderful goal from Wilson levelled proceedings. Picking the ball up 30 yards out, he took a couple of touches forward before sending in a wicked strike which had too much movement for the keeper to get close to it.

Then, after dragging themselves back into it, they shot themselves in the foot again.

Despite dominating extra time, they passed up chances through Mullins, McNaughton and Wilson. And in the second period, Lauriston’s captain took a free kick which probably would have been dealt with by Bertram. That was until a deflection changed its path and Tweeddale were down and out.

Tweeddale must now pick themselves up for the Wright Cup Final against Gala Hotspur.

This will be played at Victoria Park in Innerleithen tomorrow (Saturday).

Tweeddale: Bertram, F.Moffat, B.Moffat, R.Moffat, Macleod, Collin (McNaughton), Rogers (Lindsay), R.Meikle, B.Meikle, Wilson, Mackay (Mullins) Not used: Russell, Thomson.