F&E League

Blanefield Th ........ 2 Gartocharn ........... 1

A week after losing in the final of the Margaret White Trophy, Blanefield were back in another cup final – and this time they ended in the winners’ enclosure.

Gartocharn were the opponents in the postponed final of the MacGregor, Ferguson Cup and after an exciting final 10 minutes, it was Thistle who came out on top.

Both teams got stuck in from the start and in the early stages Gartocharn had the better chances but were unable to convert them into goals.

Thistle had bouts of pressure but they too could not find a way through a stubborn defence and at the end of a lively first half neither had scored.

Blanefield started the second half in determined fashion and went ahead after two minutes when Mark Linning made a good run down the left before cutting in to score with an excellent shot.

There was little between the sides, with good defending backed up by excellent goalkeeping from both leaving the score unchanged.

Ten minutes from time the stalemate was broken when Thistle got into the home area and in a goalmouth scramble several shots were blocked before referee Johnston decided Gartocharn’s John McQueen had stopped a scoring shot with his arm. The outcome was a red card for the player and a goal from the penalty spot for Blanefield.

Gartocharn made a great show of disregarding their numerical disadvantage and narrowed the gap to a single goal when they were awarded a penalty five minutes from time.

That, however, was as close as they got and Blanefield held on to take the MacGregor, Ferguson Cup for the seventh time to match Gartocharn’s record in this competition.

After the match each player – winners and losers – received a medal with a ribbon in the red and black colours of Forth and Endrick League sponsors James D Bilsland. Blanefield Thistle: Poole, Dempsey, J Linning, Thomson, Appleton, C Linning, S Linning, Smith, M Linning, Buchanan and Hutchison. Subs: Dunn, McGregor, Wishart, Mooney and Swann.