Tweeddale Rovers 2

Gala Hotspur 3

HAT-TRICK hero Shaun Hardie helped the Hotspur to topple unbeaten Tweeddale Rovers and lift the B Division trophy on Saturday.

Despite going into the Wright Cup final as underdogs it was Jimmy Dunbar and Fred Blackie’s team who looked the more assured for the majority of the 90 minutes.

Tweeddale did rally in the closing stages, but the Gala defence coped well to collect their first silverware of the season.

Co-manager Blackie said: “We have a young team but they played really well and deserved to win.

“We knew we were capable of winning if we played to our best and I thought we did that today.

“Tweeddale are a good team and they will take some stopping this season – but it’s great to win the cup.”

Tweeddale, who are already clear at the top of the B Division, almost got off to a flyer as Jamie Mackay weaved his way towards the box only to shoot tamely into the arms of Michael Sanderson.

Grant Wilson also drilled a couple of efforts wide of the target as the Peebles team looked for an early breakthrough.

Gala looked sharp on the counter attack with Fraser Brown and Hardie linking up well - Hardie headed a Brown cross just wide and he also smacked the bar with a powerful 25-yard effort.

But the goal came at the other end, on 33 minutes, with Nick Rogers showing plenty composure to side-foot the ball into the far corner of the net from the edge of the area.

The Hotspur responded well with Marcus Gordon rattling the cross bar after Joe Tait’s corner fell at his feet.

The equaliser did arrive in the 44th minute. Brown dinked his way past two defenders only to be upended inside the area by Finlay Moffat.

Hardie stroked away the penalty to set up a thrilling second half.

The former Gala Fairydean and Selkirk player almost fired the Hotspur into the lead on 50 minutes but Ryan Bertram did well to push his shot over the bar.

But the Public Park side did edge in front just before the hour with Hardie rising above the defence to head home Tait’s cross.

Former St Johnstone trialist David Lindsay should have equalised just a minute later but he pulled his shot wide when through on goal.

Wilson did find the net for Tweeddale on 64 minutes but he was controversially ruled offside.

And there was further agony for the Tweeddale faithful just six minutes later as man-of-the-match Hardie found enough space to curl

the ball beyond Bertram to make it 3-1.

Gala’s third goal ignited Rovers into their best period of the game. Wilson was denied by a magnificent Sanderson save and a goal-bound Rogers header was cleared off the line by Fraser Brown.

Lindsay made up for his earlier miss with a terrific strike on 76 minutes to pull Rovers back into the final.

Despite some hopeful punts into the box in the closing stages the Peebles team couldn’t orchestrate an equaliser in the closing stages.

Tweeddale co-manager Jimmy Moffat told us: “I am disappointed for the players as I don’t think we played as well as we can.

“We were beaten by a better team today and we just have to pick ourselves up and get back to league business.”

Tweeddale Rovers. R Bertram, F Moffat, M MacLeod, R Moffat, B Moffat, R Meikle, B Meikle, D Lindsay, J Mackay (C Collin 61), N Rogers (S Mullins 74) & G Wilson (M Rathie 81).

Gala Hotspur. M Sanderson, D Paterson, J Little, M Gordon, D Watson, S

Pringle, F Brown, M Blackwood (M Louth 83), S Robertson (D Kemp 83), J

Tait & S Hardie.