How do you like these apples? In this case ‘these apples’ refer to football. More specifically they refer to GeoSonic Lowland League football! We had four fantastic matches this weekend.
As ever, your intrepid reporters Ronan Alexander, Craig Edwards, Jordan Robertson and Martin Fleming have been keeping an eye on all of the goings on, comings and going, cosmic rough riders… well… you get the picture.
east stirlingshire 0-3 gala fairydean roverS
Dean Shanks’ Gala Fairydean Rovers recorded a memorable 3-0 victory at the Falkirk Stadium against East Stirlingshire on Saturday.
Ruari Paton picked up where he left off after last week’s hat trick as he netted the opener after 19 minutes.
Midway through the second period, returning Shire defender Graeme MacGregor turned a cross into his own net to double Gala’s lead before Ricky Miller made it three nine minutes later, which wrapped up the points and another clean sheet for Hibs loanee goalkeeper Patrick Martin.
The win means Gala leapfrog their opponents into tenth place, while Shire’s miserable start to the season continued as they dropped down to 11th in the standings as any slim hopes of promotion look to have already faded away.
gretna 2008 2-1 Edusport academy
There was late drama at Raydale Park as Gretna 2008 snatched a late winner after the visitors thought they had rescued a point.
Edusport play their games in Annan so it was a short trip for them to Gretna, and they created some good opportunities in the opening half hour but it was the hosts that got the breakthrough.
Daniel Fitzpatrick scored after 31 minutes to give Gretna 2008 the lead and it looked like that would be that till the final minutes.
Jordan Alexandre equalised for Edusport on the ninetieth minute as they looked to have snatched a point but it wasn’t to be as Gretna 2008 responded in stoppage time through Kevin Connelly to snatch all three points. Victory for Gretna moves them up to thirteenth ahead of Edinburgh University while Edusport sit sixth.
cumbernauld colts 2-0 whitehill welfare
Cumbernauld Colts continued their good run of form against a struggling Whitehill Welfare side. The hosts ran out 2-0 winners on a very comfortable afternoon at Broadwood.
There wasn’t much action in the first 45 minutes at Broadwood but the game kicked into gear in the second half. It took the hosts only 10 minutes after the restart to take the lead through captain Greg Pascazio, who got on the end of a Stephen O’Neill corner to turn the ball past Ross Jardine in the Welfare goal.
The home side then piled on the misery for Welfare exactly two minutes later as star man Sean Brown doubled Colts advantage. Cumbernauld looked for a third goal but it never came and the game ended 2-0 which leaves Craig McKinlay and James Orr’s men in a very impressive third place. However, Whitehill will be concerned as they remain rock bottom of the table and four points behind Edinburgh University.
university of stirling 2-2 Vale of Leithen
In a battle to climb out of the mid table at Forthbank, an entertaining fixture ended in a 2-2 draw as both sides remain glued to their middle positions.
The beginning of the game was classic end-to-end stuff before Uni’s Rory MacEwan kicked off a brilliant performance with a goal in the 17th minute after a great cross from Blair Lyons.
Vale, however, pressed on and grabbed two in the space of ten minutes. Sean Stewart grabbed the first then David Bonnar capitalised after a free kick was saved, but could not be cleared by Stirling’s back line.
Just after the second half began, Chris Geddes and the bench were left stunned as Blair Lyons received a straight red for a tackle that barely even looked like a foul. The men in green continued to fight and got their equaliser in the 50th minute when MacEwan whipped a ball in the box which clipped off a Vale man resulting in an own goal.
Both sides left Forthbank with a point and stay cemented in the same mid-table positions they started in.
