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  • Liam Marshall

GFR PROGRESS INTO QUARTERS


GFR 3

HAWICK ROYAL ALBERT 0

FERRARI PACKAGINGING LOWLAND LEAGUE CUP | ROUND 1

Gala Fairydean Rovers sailed into the quarter-finals of the Lowland League Cup with a routine victory against a dejected Hawick Royal Albert side at Netherdale thanks to goals from Liam Chambers, David Brown and Craig Heugh.

The first chance of the game arrived after fourteen minutes, with Grant Rose finding space on the edge of the box, but his effort was straight at Hawick keeper Craig Saunders. The home side the ball in the net as Scott Main bundled home from a corner with twenty-two minutes gone, but the assistant raised his flag, much to the disgust of the home support.

Recent signing Liam Chambers hadn’t yet scored for Gala before this game, but that all changed with forty-three minutes on the clock. He took the ball well on the edge of the box and placed the ball well beyond Saunders to finally open his account for the club, after threatening the goal repeatedly over the last few games.

Gala FR started the second half on top, and they created a fantastic chance six minutes after the break, with Chambers once again heavily involved. Craig Heugh took the ball well and found the onrushing Rhys Craigie, who drove at the Hawick defence before releasing Chambers one-on-one with Saunders. The keeper rushed out well, but Chambers showed an excellent turn of pace to round the keeper, but his fierce shot was cleared on the line by Shaun Spence.

David Brown replaced Chambers just before the hour mark, and the teenager had a huge impact on the game, which was in danger of petering out. Grant Rose split the Hawick defence with a perfect through ball for Brown to run onto, and he clinically placed the ball beyond the keeper to all-but-secure Gala’s place in the quarter-finals with twenty minutes remaining.

Steven Nobles’s men further increased their lead eight minutes later through Craig Heugh, who was in the right place at the right time to grab his first goal of the season. David Brown took the ball well on the right wing and drove into the box well before standing the ball up to the back post, right to the feet of Heugh, who had made a trademark lung-busting run to grab the goal that his fine play over the last few weeks has deserved.

The final chance of the game came in the eighty-seventh minute, again thanks partly to the highly-impressive David Brown, who has recently re-joined the club after leaving in November. In an almost identical move to Heugh’s goal, Brown found Fraser Neave at the back post, but the midfielder’s arrowed drive swirled inches over the bar.

GFR: Martin, Stephen (Guiney 78’), Main, Smith, Miller ©, Chambers (D. Brown 56’), Rendle (G. Brown 78’), Heugh, Rose, Craigie, Neave.

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