No luck for Newton
This League Cup first round tie was an exciting contest between two teams determined to play good football with the inexperience of the home side.
South of Scotland League Cup First Round
Newton Stewart 1
Threave Rovers 3
This coupled with some poor luck, leading to their eventual downfall against a much more experienced Threave Rovers.
The home side started out the better of the two teams, with a couple of early efforts and the young Newton side were proving a handful for the experienced Threave defence.
When Newton won a corner on the right, McEwan rose above the defence to produce an unstoppable header into the visitors' net.
It took to almost the half-hour mark for Threave to come close – a Sam Warren corner almost made it into the back of the net thanks to Andrew Donley, but was the shot near the post was well defended and finished up the wrong side of the upright.
However, a couple of minutes later the visitors did level the score when a ball from the left deceived the home defence and fell to Donley who made no mistake from 12 yards out.
Five minutes later Threave took the lead when, following a goalmouth scramble, the ball entered the net via a deflection off Sean Milligan.
Threave became livelier in the second half after the introduction of ex-Queen of the South player, Grant Middlemass. It took a great goal-line clearance from Martin Walsh to stop the visitors going further ahead following the youngster's gutsy attempt on goal.
Twenty minutes from the end of play a poor defensive clearance landed favourably for Middlemass but his weak shot was easily dealt with by Newton keeper Dale Leith. The youngster was not to be denied though and although Newton were giving as good as they got, his dipping shot from 20 yards entered the net over the outstretched arms of the keeper.
Newton Stewart had claims for a first-half penalty turned away when Gary Smith was brought down, but 10 minutes from time there was no denying an award when Smith was again caught by keeper Benson.
Substitute Jamie McKie stepped up to the mark but his effort from the spot was saved by the keeper as he dived to his left to pull off a save.
This gave the visitors the lift that they needed to see the game out.
This match was closer as the scoreline suggests, and as Newton Stewart's season progresses and the new players blend into the side, they can look to pull of some good results if they continue to perform as they did in this match against the South champions.
Threave Rovers on the other hand have almost the same team they had last season and they play well together, but they know they must not take their eye off the ball.
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Weather for Newton Stewart
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
