Tweedmouth Rangers 3

Peebles Rovers 1

Neil Hobson at Old Shielfield Park

THIS is certainly going down as one season that had more twists and turns than a Borders back-road.

On a sunny afternoon that promised so much, Rovers skulked back across the border in a state of total despair, with Tweedmouth Rangers flooring Peebles in a 3-1 defeat at Old Shielfield Park.

Saul Schulz-Keith grabbed the only Rovers goal on what was a discombobulated performance in Berwick.

Indeed, this was a day where Tweedmouth blew all memory of their shambolic showing in the 7-2 thrashing at Whitestone Park away with a classy and assured showing.

For Ger Rossi and his team, this was an opportunity missed to ensure an iron grip on the dangling legs of Eyemouth and Coldstream in the league table.

The match kicked off in a ball of frenetic energy, with both teams bearing their teeth in an aggressive opening ten minutes.

Ross Lamb, making his debut after signing on a month-long loan deal from Vale of Leithen, quickly made Rovers’ intentions clear with a surging run from midfield that required a hefty tackle from Michael Allan.

Such dynamic end-to-end action was almost certainly going to culminate in an early goal.

Bang on the 15-minute mark, a magnificent defence-splitting ball from Colquhoun saw Ross Moore latch onto the pass and power the ball past McGinley with a net-bursting volley to make it 1-0.

It was undoubtedly a blow, but Rovers responded in typical fashion; with a devastating aerial bombardment on the Tweedmouth box.

Zavaroni was once again the architect of the fight-back, as he stormed up the park, beating men in orange shirts with ease, thereby allowing him to knock in a gift-wrapped ball from the left on 24 minutes.

Jason Newell attempted to put a thunderous header past Patterson, but was unlucky to see his effort miss the target by millimetres.

This was to become something of a recurring image throughout the 90 minutes, with Zavaroni teeing them up - and his teammates missing.

Changes were made in the second-half, with Saul Schulz-Keith and Robbie Renwick entering the battle for Ross Forrest and Jason Newell.

It ultimately proved to be a shrewd switch-up, as it took just 11 minutes for the two subs to make a mark on the game.

Renwick ripped through the Rangers midfield before pinging a delightful ball to Saul on the left, the wide man gleefully accepted this gift before tearing off like a jet.

Ainslie disarmed Schulz-Keith off this ball, and, from the resulting corner, Lamb knocked in a delightful ball where a brief game of pinball was enjoyed, before Saul tucked the ball away.

But, then, the nightmare began.

What should have been the perfect gateway to a Peebles fight-back, turned into a Kafkaesque horror show.

Tweedmouth runs, Tweedmouth corners, Tweedmouth goals - an abundance of them.

Niall Jones picked up the ball on the left and turned his marker inside-out, before tucking the ball past McGinley on 72 minutes.

Red and white misery was compounded on 76 minutes after Ben Jackson saw his tame header trickle past the keeper.

In a suitably miserable end to a miserable day, Peebles won a penalty on 83 minutes after Ger Rossi was fouled in the box by Allan.

Zavaroni stepped up, but saw his effort palmed away by John Patterson to the roar of the Tweedmouth support.

Peebles: McGinley, Mackay, Brown, Forrest, Cockburn, Smith, Rossi, Zavaroni, G. Lamb, R. Lamb & Newell. Subs: Sterricks, Renwick, Schulz-Keith, Runciman