Honours even as Welfare and Gretna battle in the wind

The home side got the game under way and with the wind advantage had Gretna on the back foot for most of the half.

Andrew Kidd in midfield was a key player for Whitehill and he linked up with Dayne Robertson down the left to get behind Gretna right back Sam Atkinson. The little winger fired in a wicked ball at the near post but Steve Watt was able to turn it out for a corner. However, in the 40th minute Gretna opened the scoring against the run of play.Phil Storey drove into the area and found Adam McMath whose first time shot beat Walker in the Whitehill goal.

The home side were then denied by a brilliant save from Conor Grant before the first half drew to a close.

In the second half a mix up between Gretna defender Matty Brown and keeper Grant led to an equaliser for Welfare with Aaron Sommerville driving the ball home. Steve Watt was outstanding for the visitors as he appeared to be winning his battle against the Whitehill forwards. But as the visitors pushed for another goal they were caught on the counter attack and the ball ran kindly for Wayne McIntosh who drilled the ball past Grant to put the home side in front, 2-1. Gretna rallied though and were back on level terms after Storey was brought down in the area by Walker resulting in a penalty, which David Renyard thundered into the net.

The game continued to rage end to end with both teams looking for the winner but neither side were able to produce another goal.

However, great credit must go to the players for putting on an entertaining game of football in terrible conditions and in the end a draw was probably the fairest result.

Whitehill Welfare: Walker, Hall, Thom, Kidd, Bruce, Bonthrone, Kidd, Moffat, McIntosh, Sommerville, Herd, McCulloch, Young, Sinclair, Manson, Robertson, Sproule, Tansey, Swanson.

Gretna FC 2008: Grant, Atkinson, Heaney, Watt, Brown, Cumersky, Renyard, Blake, McMath, Storey, Sloan, Parker, Slattery, McKie.