Last updated at 10:28, Thursday, 06 October 2011

Duns Amateurs 1 Langholm Legion 1 LEGION travelled to league champions Duns without the suspended Martin Thomlinson, Bob Lamb and Ali Little and the unavailable Ewan Graham.

They came away with a valuable point after a hard-fought 90 minutes during which the whole squad put in a power of work.

Player manager Steve Lamb sprang a surprise by putting himself at the heart of the defence and the evergreen Jason Little came out of retirement once more to lead the line alongside Robert Davidson.

Straight from the kick-off Duns played the ball back to their keeper and his attempted clearance was sliced out wide on the left to Davidson. He controlled well and from 25 yards out fired the ball over the stranded keeper and into the roof of the net to give Legion a first-minute lead.

The next 10 minutes saw Duns in control as Legion struggled to match up in the middle of the park, although no clear chances were created as the defence held firm. Duns got the equaliser 15 minutes in when they scored from a direct free kick just outside the box.

Almost straight after this Legion were dealt a big blow when Davidson went down after suffering a recurrence of his continuing hamstring problem. Park replaced him and he soon made his presence felt with a rather robust challenge and the referee yellow-carded him.

The rest of the half was fairly even with both keepers producing good saves to keep the scoreline even.

The second half followed the same pattern, with both teams playing some good football and only the final ball was sometimes found lacking. As the game progressed and tiredness crept in, it became more stretched as the teams pushed hard for a winner.

Legion had two good opportunities to take the points when Park’s rasping effort from the edge of the box cannoned off the crossbar and when Little sent his free header from five yards wide of the post after a fantastic run and cross from Cuthbert on the right.

To come away from Duns with anything is always a good result and the team should be proud of the way they fought hard for each other in the face of the refereeing decisions. It is a credit to them that they refused to let this affect them.

Youngsters Ireland, Haldane and the increasingly-impressive Cuthbert will gain great confidence and experience from days like this, while Irving must have covered every blade of grass in an all-action display which sets the standard for the rest to follow.

This Saturday Legion are away to Tweeddale Rovers.

Team: Johnson, Cuthbert, S Lamb, Gardner, Ireland, Anderson, Borthwick, L Irving, Haldane, Little, Davidson. Subs: Park, G Irving.

First published at 21:38, Wednesday, 05 October 2011
Published by http://www.eladvertiser.co.uk