Hawick Royal Albert 1 Vale of Leithen 4

The bad weather coming from the North had only just reached Hawick prior to kick off. Although the pitch looked in reasonable condition there were various bumpy areas throughout.
Vale arrived with two of Saturday’s midfield missing, Allan and Raiker, and only two players on the bench.
The game got off to the best of starts in the 2 min when Finnie played a great ball through to Liall Smith who control the ball and slotted it past the Hawick goalkeeper to give Vale the lead.
However, after some early pressure by Vale, Hawick equalised in the 6 min when some hesitation in the defence allowed a Tully header rebound to be hit home by McFadden.
Vale were having the majority of the possession with the Hawick goalkeeper pulling off a couple of good saves from Patterson and Dawson.
Hawick were mainly relying on the ball over the top where their pacy forwards were always a danger.
Vale’s pressure was rewarded in the 45 min when a deflected ball fell to Stewart who on the second attempt scored to restore Vale’s lead.
HT 1-2
The second half commenced with Vale totally in command and only a batch of missed chances in the first 15 minutes stopped them putting the game to bed.
After a lull in the play Vale went further ahead in the 65 min when after a short corner a McBride cross to the back post was headed home by Lynch.
The game was finished in the 75 min when after some neat passing movements down the right wing Stewart was upended when he cut into the box.
Patterson scored from the penalty kick.
With Vale having use their two substitutes, one of them, Jonny Scott-Mercer, twisted his knee leaving Vale to play the last 10 minutes with 10 men.
FT 1-4
Another good effort from the team, no failures tonight, keep it going boys.