Upper Annandale 2

Peebles Rovers 1

Neil Hobson at Moffat Academy

PEEBLES Rovers returned to action on Saturday, with a pre-season defeat to Upper Annandale in a battling friendly at Moffat Academy.

Josh Usher blasted the South of Scotland outfit into the lead on 23 minutes, taking advantage of momentary sluggishness in the Rovers defence.

David Lindsay grabbed the equaliser 11 minutes later with a powerful penalty before Michael Swan bundled the ball over the line in the closing stages of the first-half to seal a lead that the Uppers would not surrender.

Pre-season is rarely the time to judge a team - a potent cocktail of post-holiday blues and lack of match fitness often conspires against players showing their true stuff- indeed, a problem doubled for the Rovers with nearly seven regular starters absent.

Nonetheless, this particular clash, under a grey sky in Moffat, gave a fascinating insight into the early days of Ger Rossi’s second season.

As often is the case with these games, an early power-struggle in midfield developed.

A precise move from the Rovers opened the door for Jason Newell to launch a cross-field ball to Michael Cockburn - with the left-back darting down the flank before being crowded out by a proactive Uppers defence.

A key reason why Rovers dropped points last year was mistakes, tiny moments in matches that often had severe repercussions. An issue that Rossi has evidently been working to iron out.

Josh Usher showed some sweet footwork to dance through the Peebles defence, with Ben McGinley left isolated.

As consistently brilliant as McGinley is, a frenzied Usher move saw the keeper evaded with the figure of Ben Brown arriving on the scene, heroically booting the ball into space.

As Peebles regained their composure, a foul on Alan McMath opened the window of opportunity for Ross Lamb to smash a terrific free-kick at the Upper keeper.

The ball, with near-GPS accuracy, was destined to only wallop the crossbar.

Alas, this spate of Peebles dominance wasn’t to last, with a punctual Uppers attack making it 1-0 to the home-side after 23 minutes. The Annandale wide man rampaged down the left, giving his marker the slip with a terrific move.

The ball whizzed in from short-range, and Josh Usher was there to gobble up the chance and stab the ball home.

However this set-back scarcely registered on the Rovers radar however, and Gregor Lamb quickly put himself to work, making off like a bandit by robbing the full-back of the ball and galloping away down the left.

Lamb carved his way through, before hitting a gift-wrapped ball into the box.

McMath went to scoop it up before being crudely upturned with a somewhat over-enthusiastic challenge. The referee pointed straight to the spot, with Lindsay stepping up to slam the ball home and the Rovers back on level terms.

The big man was terrific, a forceful presence that fittingly symbolised the whole attitude of Rossi’s workmanlike team.

As half-time approached, Michael Swan bundled another shot over the line to hand them a 2-1 lead.

The second-half saw Grant Wilson launch a fierce attacking onslaught, showing some beautiful football to evade his marker, culminating in the big striker ‘megging his marker and whipping the ball into the box, with Gregor Lamb narrowly missing out on powering home a bullet header.

As the game continued, Rovers were denied a penalty on 78 minutes after McMath was bundled over in the box - the referee giving nothing but a firm shake of his head.

McMath had another penalty shout turned down soon after, with the attacker looking to whip in a ball from the right-hand side, but his cross allegedly smacked the hand of the Uppers defender, but again, still no penalty and Peebles walked away with nothing more than 90 minutes under their belts.

Peebles: McGinley, Dodds, Brown, Newell, Cockburn, Rossi, R Lamb, G Lamb, Lindsay, McMath & Wilson. Subs: Kerr, J Runciman & B Runciman.