Kelso United 1
Whitehill Welfare 3
KING CUP FIRST ROUND
GEORGE RILEY reports from Woodside Park
TWO goals in two minutes by Whitehill winger Scott Gormley ended United’s interest in the King Cup.
Kelso more than matched their Premier Division opponents for the first hour of the match, but, surprisingly, proceedings changed in favour of the Rosewell side after they went down to 10 men when Dayne Robertson was sent off.
United almost scored with the first attack of the game.
A good ball from Liam Wallace found Stuart Harker in the box and the big man’s right-foot shot was saved by Welfare keeper Ryan McGurk at point-blank range, the No1 managing to diverting the ball onto the crossbar and out of danger.
The home side were playing at a good tempo, and with the midfield and defence secure, it was no surprise when United took the lead on the half-hour mark.
Jordan Lauder took off down the left flank and produced a great cross for Des Burnett to steer the ball through McGurk’s legs and into the net.
The visitors were being reduced to long-range shots, with Aaron Somerville well off-target with a couple of efforts.
Five minutes after the restart, Whitehill went down to 10 men when Robertson was given a straight red card by referee Blaine Robertson for a two-footed lunge at United’s Steven Tait.
But Whitehill began to play with some purpose and Scott Dowie was called upon to save a Somerville shot.
After a period of pressure, the visitors equalised in the 62nd minute, when an Alan Brown corner on the right found Gormley unmarked at the edge of the box and he rifled a right-footed shot into the net.
Welfare’s second quickly followed when a long pass from the back saw Gormley through one-on-one with the home keeper. The speedy winger touched the ball round Dowie before sweeping it into net.
McGurk made the save of the day midway through the half when he managed to claw a Stuart Harker header which had looped over him to safety. Kelso kept battling and a header from Burnett went just wide.
Welfare made the game secure a minute from time. A ball down the left saw a race for it between Gormley and Dowie – there was only going to be one winner and the former knocked the ball to Andrew Kidd, who shot into the unguarded goal.
Kelso: S. Dowie, G. Mabon, S. Angus, D. McNulty, G. McNulty, S. Tait, C. Black, S. Harker (C. Webb 75), D. Burnett, L. Wallace, J. Lauder.