Lothian Thistle 7

Peebles Rovers 0

Neil Hobson at Saughton Enclosure

PEEBLES Rovers got their November off to a horror start after being battered into submission by Lothian Thistle.

On a bleak afternoon in the capital, Ger Rossi’s team paid the price for slack defending – as the champions ran riot to hit a magnificent seven.

For Rovers, they now must work to fix a run of form that has seen them lose three games on the bounce to the league’s top dogs, Kelty and Lothian, conceding 16 goals in the process.

The game started in typical fashion, little to hint at the Lothian dominance that was to come, as the two teams battled for control of the midfield.

Michael McEwan had to react fast to steer a Kevin Brown cross away from the box.

But Lothian slowly built up momentum before hitting Peebles with the first goal on seven minutes.

Jamie Devlin, on the back of a neat Swanson ball, went one-on-one with McGinley and came out on top with a tidy finish.

The dynamic duo of Swanson and Devlin were gunning for a second goal, with the former knocking in a tidy ball from the left for the latter in the middle – again, it took another clearance, this time from Zavaroni, to keep Lothian out.

It was ultimately an unsuccessful endeavour, as Lothian notched the second on 15 minutes. Ryan Hutchison converted from close range after another sweet cross from out wide.

Things soon went from bad to worse for Peebles after conceding a penalty on 21 minutes when McGinley chopped down Swanson as he raced out for the ball in a one-on-one.

However, McGinley went from zero to hero after pulling out a daring double save to deny Lothian a penalty - but some lax defending saw Samuel Nhamburo score a tap-in despite McGinley’s heroics.

Nhamburo was the man again on 34 minutes, speeding off, leaving the defence for dead, as he went one-on-one and came out on top with a drilled effort.

The second-half was always going to be a case of damage containment, with a definite improvement noted, however, it wasn’t enough against a relentless Lothian side.

Ryan Hutchison scored again for Lothian on 67 minutes, stabbing home from close-range after a goalmouth scramble.

Jamie Devlin then grabbed a second after rattling home a 25-yard free-kick on 72 minutes.

Louis Swanson then rounded off the scoring on 80 minutes after lashing the ball home from just outside the box.

Rovers now look ahead to their third round tie of the South Region Challenge Cup against Cumbernauld Colts at Broadwood Stadium today (7.30pm kick off)

Peebles: McGinley, Mackay, Brown, Newell, Sterricks, Rossi, Zavaroni, R Lamb, G Lamb, McEwan, Schulz-Keith

SUBS: Cockburn, Dodds, Forrest, Lindsay, Fleming, Renwick