It was the traditional pre-season Clydesdale Cup that brought Lesmahagow Juniors to the John Cumming Stadium on a dreich scottish summer evening.

The prize for the winners was a trip to Moor Park, Lanark to face Lanark United whom the previous night had beaten Forth Wanderers 1-0 at Kingshill Park.

This was a decent game for the neutral, not that there were likely to be many inside the Stadium.

The match was pretty even in the early exchanges of the first half with no team really creating any decent chances.

It was 30 minutes before the deadlock was broken as Shaun Watson pounced on a loose ball in the box and stabbed it home to put the Rovers ahead.

Although a pre-season match it was certainly not a friendly as it threatened to boil over at various points as both sides put in some crunching challenges and certainly didn’t hold back in the tackles.

Falconer came close for Lesmahagow with around 10 to go in the half as he cut in from the right and hit a decent shot only for it to be saved by the legs of Terry in the Rovers goal.

Just before half time, Lesmahagow were handed a lifeline as Chiedu handled in the box and the referee had no hesitation in awarding the penalty.

Woodlock stepped up for Lesmahagow and calmly slotted home the penalty just on half time.

Half time 1-1

The second half was played out much the same as the first with both sides creating several chances.

Terry in the Rovers goal was on fine form and made several decent saves to keep the match all level.

Ross MacNeill was creating chances with his runs down the right but still the deadlock could not be broken.

20 minutes in and the Rovers had a decent penalty claim as a Conor McDonald shot looked to have came off a defenders hand but the referee waved the claims away.

With the game almost on 90 minutes Lesmahagow almost won it but for a last ditch goal line clearance from Mitchell.

So 90 minutes couldn’t separate the 2 sides and it was on to penalties.

With Cassidy, Donaghy and MacNeill having scored the first 3 Rovers penalties and Whitefield & Schoneville having scored 2 for Lesmahagow it was the unfortunate Woodlock, having earlier scored from the penalty spot, who seen his effort come off the post.

McDonald scored Rovers 4th and the Clark slotted home for Lesmahagows 3rd, it was then down to Grierson to win the match for the Rovers.

A well placed penalty to the left gave the keeper no chance and resulted in the Rovers victorious by 5 penalties to 3.

The Rovers now face Lanark on Monday evening with the victors picking up the Clydesdale Cup.

Photography by Kevin Ramage