Published: Friday, 12th June, 2009 1:02pm

Another topsy turvy season for Rovers

LEITHEN Rovers" football campaign once again finished with silverware in the cabinet, this time the Beveridge Cup, which they won on the last day of the season, beating eventual league winners Chirnside 3-2 in a thrilling final.

The management team of Paul Graham and Neil Gilchrist, with head coach Gary Coltman took over the reins at the beginning of the season, but were saddened at the untimely loss of long serving backroom member Duncan Smith, who was killed in a road traffic accident in August.

The team got off to a good start to the season but were stung by a heavy defeat away to Chirnside in October and from then on they were chasing the Berwickshire side.

Their cause was further hampered by the poor weather and atrocious condition of their park in Innerleithen, having to postpone a number of games, allowing the gap at the top of the league to widen even further.

They then suffered another tragic loss as news that former player and friend Alec Lucas was killed in action in Afghanistan.

The club however once again pulled together and put in a run of fine displays and several victories, especially the away win at Gala Rovers just after New Year.

The combination of experienced players and the addition of some rising stars gave them the belief that they could claw back what was now a 24 point gap at the top.

One such partnership was that of the two main strikers, Gary Hastie and young goal-machine Alan ' Speedy" McMath, who between them scored an impressive 68 goals.

McMath went on to notch up 43 himself that won him both Managers and Players 'Player of the Year" awards as well as the Top Goalscorers prize.

Another notable new-comer was goalkeeper Scott Crawford, who had been signed from Gala Hotspur at the start of the season.

His performance throughout the season earned him the 'Most Improved Player" trophy that even saw him score from one of his massive kick-outs.

Rovers continued to eat away at the point difference and by the time they were due to play Gala Rovers the gap was 13 points.

It was in this game that Leithen Rovers fell victim to the bizarre ruling that allowed East Senior players to play amateur and Gala used no less than SIX players in this fixture that.

Although they pushed their visitors all the way, Rovers went down 5-3. This made their quest for the title even more difficult but a fantastic run of 6 straight wins, including a 5-1 win away to Pencaitland and two wins against Newtown, saw them needing to take maximum points in their remaining two games against Hawick Waverley and Hawick Legion.

Having disposed of Waverley 4-1 and Chirnside stuttering to the finish line, the Innerleithen side had pulled level on points, although with a poorer goal difference.

It all went down to the wire against Legion. Knowing that a mighty 7 goal win would snatch the championship from Chirnside, they set about a strong Hawick side and amazingly raced to a 5 goal lead but eventually faded and only ran out winners by 6-2 -losing the league by just 3 goals.

Spirits had to be lifted 4 days later as the Beveridge Cup Final drew near.They were up against Chirnside again, the desire to finish on a high was strong in the Rovers camp and despite going behind twice in the game, the football and drive that had taken them agonisingly close in the league run in came through and goals from Gary Hastie, another young star Robin Shek and Thomas Fleming sealed the victory, their 5th trophy in 3 seasons.

With the league season over, their was one last event for Leithen Rovers to line-up in - The Alec Lucas Memorial Tournament.

The 7-a-side event had The Rovers winning their first 5 games to reach the final only to be beaten by the hotly favoured Royal Marines side.

The Rovers are now looking to strengthen for next season with several new players ear-marked to add to the current squad, and lets hope they can take it one step further come next May.