Hawick Royal Albert 1

Arniston Rangers 0

David Knox

at Albert Park

HAWICK picked up their first win in the new East of Scotland conferences on Saturday – and they did it with only nine players.

In a bad-tempered match referee Darren Cormack brandished three red cards as well as countless yellows.

And if he'd had the support of assistants many more players would have been given their marching orders during an 18th-minute brawl.

But, controversy and punch-ups aside, the Albert produced their grittiest performance of the season to earn all three points.

Manager Paul McGovern, who played the final few minutes, told us: “I have no complaints about our two players being sent off, but they were only reacting to what was being missed by the referee.

“Punches were thrown by a lot of players out there and there could easily have been five or six players red carded.

“But we regrouped and I had a good talk with the players at half time – I thought they were terrific and gave their all.

“We desperately needed a win and I’m hoping we can build on this today.”

It had been a fairly uneventful opening quarter hour when Arniston centre half Laurie Jones took exception to what he believed was a dive from Albert striker Molamin Touray.

The off-the-ball slap-come-punch was missed by referee Cormack.

And when Touray was targeted again just two minutes later with another off-the-ball shove-come-punch, all hell broke loose with the majority of the 22 players getting involved.

Touray and his strike partner Demba Thiam were both red-carded for their retaliatory punches while Arniston’s Dean Boyne was also shown his marching orders for his part in the ensuing brawl.

Surprisingly neither of Arniston’s centre-halves who seemed to have initiated the violence were spoken to.

Once the football resumed Rangers finished the half on the front foot with Marlon Pinto and Kyle Houdcroft-Doig both forcing good saves from Craig Saunders.

Following the interval, though, Hawick’s counter attacking was effective.

Scott Murphy’s strike from the edge of the area deflected narrowly wide of the Arniston goal on 50 minutes.

And just after the hour stand-in striker Lewis Knox drew a foul from the defender inside the area.

Knox picked himself up to fire the spot kick beyond Darren McBay.

Despite Arniston enjoying the majority of possession and forcing the Albert deeper as the half wore on, Saunders was rarely called into action.

And on 80 minutes Dominico Pacitti could have made sure of victory for nine-man Hawick but he fired over from 15 yards.

As the clock ticked down and with Hawick’s players visibly tiring, 49-year-old McGovern came off the bench to help see out the final five or six minutes.

The manager added: “One or two of the boys had run themselves into the ground and we were short of numbers today, so I had no option than to come on and help at the end.

“I won’t be doing that every week.”

Hawick Royal Albert. C Saunders, L Knox, D Pacitti (P McGovern 87), S Murphy, E Svickas, L Glasgow, F Turay (R McCrae 76), G Lloyd, M Touray, D Thiam & D Watson