Gala Fairydean Rovers 1 Gretna FC (2008) 3

Saturday 2^nd May 2015 Lowland League Cup

Gretna had gone into Saturday’s encounter at Galashiels in a confident mood as they had won each of the three previous meetings between the 2 clubs this season and this was the first of the knockout round in the Lowland League Cup.  

The match kicked-off with an unseasonably cold wind swirling around the A-listed main stand and within a minute the Gretna strike force of Milligan and Anderson had made their intentions clear when they forced the Gala keeper, Dodds into making a double save.  That passage of play set the pattern for the rest of the first half with the Gretna duo causing havoc in the Gala defence, however it was not all one way traffic and Gala had a good shout for a penalty turned down by the referee when Dean Rea appeared to catch the foot of Gala’s Jamie Gibson, Gala also had a few shots on Goal but rarely troubled Craig Murray in the Gretna goal.

Despite chances at both ends of the park, the first half ended goalless.

The second half kicked off in much the same fashion as the first.  However, this time, the Gretna forwards were having more luck in front of goal.  An in swinging corner found the head of Iain Anderson who duly found the back of the net to put Gretna into a fiftieth minute lead. 

Five minutes later a bit of slack defending in the Gretna box let Kyle Collins score from inside the six yard box to level the match, however three minutes later Iain Anderson restored the Gretna Lead.  An inch perfect cross from Brandon Longcake found Milligan in the left hand side of the box who glided past a couple of defenders to find the unmarked Anderson who had the easiest of tasks to slot home the ball into the unguarded net.

The goals gave the Gretna a lot more confidence with more players have long range shots on goal.  Danny Graham came close of three occasions, one of which rattled the post.

Two minutes from time, Gretna sealed entry into the semi-final of the league Cup when a tiring Gala defence allowed Anderson to beat the off side trap.  He ran towards goal with the Gala defence trying to keep up with him.  He found Longcake who calmly slotted home Gretna’s third and final goal.