Newtown4
Gala Hotspur1
GALA HOTSPUR’S long wait for their first Waddell Cup win continues after playing for 74 minutes with 10 men, writes Kenny Paterson.
Spurs have yet to win the cup – competed for by all Border Amateur teams – despite it now being in its 41st year.
And their cause in 2014 was not helped after Scott Nightingale was sent off after only 16 minutes against Newtown.
The Spurs striker was enraged that he was denied a penalty for an apparent handball by Newtown defender Paul Scott, and received two bookings within a minute for foul language directed at referee Willie Mack.
With Newtown’s continued problems with their soggy King George V Park, the cup tie was switched to Netherdale’s 3G Arena, and their temporary home appeared to suit Stephen Swanston, who opened the scoring within the first minute after linking up with Scott Leitch.
Nightingale’s red card left the young Spurs side facing a heavy defeat, but instead the B Division side equalised in spectacular fashion when Duncan Kemp’s 30-yard free kick flew past Newtown keeper Douglas Gill in the 22nd minute.`
Newtown were wasteful in the first half, but upped their performance in the second period. Three goals in eight minutes secured victory. Scott Leitch grabbed a double in two minutes and Neil Macvicar tapped in Matt Scott’s cross for the fourth in the 58th minute to seal the tie and send his team into the quarter-finals of the cup and a home tie against Greenlaw.