However, he admitted his team will have to improve if they are to repeat the feat when the two sides meet again in the BT Cup in the New Year.

A single point victory over Hawks at the Greenyards on Saturday allowed Melrose to move 13 points clear of fourth placed Gala in the Premiership table.

Three penalties from Joe Helps, following Tito Mua’s opening try, gave the home side the advantage.

However, with the visitors losing three players to the sin bin - David Milne, Steven Findlay and Paul Ramsay - and normally reliable goal kicker Jack Steele missing a relatively easy chance in front of the posts, the result could easily have gone either way.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph pitchside after the full-time whistle, Dalziel said: “I think we could have played better, we were a bit pedantic, but I’m not going to even look at the rugby part of it, you’ve got to find a way of winning these games and we managed to do that in the end.

“I think that was the most physical game we’ve played for a long time. We really struggled to break Hawks down for large parts, I thought their defence kept them in the game.

“I feel for Hawks a wee bit because they put a hell of a lot into that game and could have pinched it at the tail end there. We’ll have to be better up there at Hawks to break that team down.” Hawks’ points came from a George Horne try, which was converted by Steele, who also added two penalties.

Their first score came while they were reduced to 14 men and after Melrose had taken the lead.

However, despite trailing by two points going into added on time at the end of the second half, Melrose, who led 8-7 at the interval, pushed patiently worked their way into the Hawks 22 and forced the visitors to concede a late penalty, which Helps converted, to secure the narrowest of wins.

Dalziel added: “We’ll take the four points and dust ourselves down. We set a target of winning the three games in this block (Stirling, Boroughmuir and Hawks) and the players have done that. They look tired at the tail end but we can now enjoy our Christmas.” Melrose: Fraser Thomson (Capt.), Tito Mua, George Taylor, Joe Helps, Bruce Colvine, Austin Lockington, Murdo McAndrew; Nick Beavon, Richard Ferguson, Ewan McQuillin, James Head, Lewis Carmichael, Andrew Nagle, Peter Eccles, Graeme Dodds. Replacements: Nicky Little, Ruairdh Knott, Ross Miller, Tom Wilson, Tom Galbraith.