Vale of Leithen 3 Gretna FC (2008) 2

Vale of Leithen                3 (2)

C.Anderson, I.Little

GRETNA FC (2008)           2 (2)

I.Anderson, M.Worrall

After the highs of last weeks home victory against Spartans, the black and whites crashed to an improving Vale side.

Gretna gave away a goal in the first minute when poor defending allowed Vale captain, Chris Anderson enough room to strike from the edge of the area with Wright helpless in the Gretna goal, 1-0.

Iain Anderson broke down the left side of the penalty and cut the ball back for Connor Graham, but the young midfielder blasted his shot high and wide.

Gretna had the ball in the net in the tenth minute but Joe Slattery was ruled offside when running onto an Anderson flick.

Anderson nearly got on the scoresheet when he rose to head an Alan Inglis corner kick, but the big forwards header flashed across goal agonisingly past the far post.

Disaster for the visitors in the twentieth minute when Gretna defender Dave Wallace tried a cross field ball to Steven Rudd on the right but Chris Anderson blocked the pass and gave Wright no chance with a curling shot into the keepers right hand corner of the net, 2-0.

An uphill struggle for Gretna as passes went astray and decisions appeared to go against them.

Slattery tested the Vale keeper with a well struck right footed shot from long range, then an Inglis piledriver from 30 yards was turned round for a corner by the keeper. Slattery’s inswinging corner kick was cleared off the line with keeper stranded.

Gretna pulled a goal back when Slattery evaded several tackles as he waltzed his way through the home defence only to be denied by a good save by the keeper, fortunately Anderson was first to react to the react and blasted the ball under the keeper into the far corner of the net, 2-1. Minutes later the game was level, after Graham was fouled on the right midway in the Vale half, Inglis fired in a low free kick and Mark Worrall ran across the defence to turn the ball into the net, 2-2  H/T.

Gretna started the better of the two sides in the second half with Anderson and Slattery pushing forward and trying to make use of the slope. The deceptive pace of Anderson was giving huge problems for the home defenders as he drove at the heart of their defence. Vale were restricted to counter attacks as the visitors pressed for the next goal, this was to prove the undoing of Gretna when after shots from Longcake, Slattery and Main were blocked and the ball broke for Little who ran from his own half and slotted the ball past Wright to make the score 3-2 to Vale.

Wright made a point blank save from V10 or the home side could have gone 4-2 up as Gretna were left bare at the back.

Big moment of controversy after the Vale keeper brought down Anderson on the edge of the box with the referee claiming the keeper was not the last man and brandished a yellow card for Vale number 1. This upset the Gretna support who believed the colour of the card should have been red.

Gretna manager Stuart Rome replaced Brandon Longcake with Jordan Barker and Lewis Todd for Jonny Blake as the game entered the closing stages.

Vale’s crossbar shook as a shot by Barker rebounded back off the bar and down onto the line, more despair for Wallace when he headed the ball over the bar with goal open in front of him. F/T 3-2.

GRETNA FC (2008)

G.Wright, J.Blake, A.Inglis, S.Rudd, D.Wallace, C.Graham, B.Longcake, A.Main, I.Anderson, J.Slattery, M.Worrall.

Subs: L.Todd, J.Barker, D.Graham, G.Thorburn, J.Greenall.