Sandy's fight for Cup glory after Widows take lead

Sandy's were brimming with confidence going into the final showpiece of the season after finishing 18 points clear of their league rivals – but if anything, this deficit appeared to inspire Scottish Widows, the green and white hoops assuming the advantage before eventually succumbing to a 3-1 defeat.

A frantic opening saw both sides display the benchmarks of good football: crisp, fast, effective passing with a willingness to attack at every opportunity. However, despite both sets of strikers causing concern for the opposing defences, it was Sandy's defender Darren Hainey who came closest to opening the scoring after his attempted clearance clipped the top of his own crossbar.

The woodwork rattled a second time five minutes later, this time at the opposing end. A cross from the right was met by Sandy's striker James Clarkson whose header struck the left upright. And with Widows keeper Jim Kellachor out of position, John Robertson dispatched the ball into the back of the net. His celebrations were short-lived however as the assistant referee had correctly ruled him offside.

Scottish Widows always looked dangerous on the break with winger Scott Mason a constant threat to Sandy's' defence. Mason collected the ball after a throw-in from the left and with some neat footwork played the ball into space for Paul Harcus, but the striker failed to connect correctly and screwed his shot wide.

The opening to the second half was similar to the first, with persistent attacking and neat interchanges between midfield and attack. But, within the opening ten minutes, Scottish Widows managed to achieve what both sides had failed to do and grabbed hold of the lead.

A free-kick deep inside Sandy's territory was expertly headed back across goal by Sean Barr and this time Harcus made no mistake as he placed the ball past goalkeeper David Courtney.

Widows scoring the opener proved to be the spur of urgency Sandy's required as they grabbed not only an equaliser but a second goal to ease them quickly into a 2-1 lead.

Firstly, a corner from the left was unconvincingly dealt with by Kellachor as he could only parry his attempted punch straight to the alert Dale Miller, who fired his shot straight back towards goal and into the far corner to level the tie at 1-1.

Widows were subjected to a further blow as Sandy's gained the initiative only five minutes later. Robertson showed doggedness down the right-hand side and from his inviting cross Clarkson managed to out-jump the Widows defence and send a downwards header past a helpless Kellachor.

Man-of-the-match Clarkson oozed confidence as his side looked to kill the game off, and his superb solo effort 20 minutes from time did just that. The little striker teased opposing defender Mason with some neat twists and turns before delicately chipping the ball over Kellachor and into the far corner from the edge of the box to settle the tie.

Sandy's coach Paddy Mason was delighted with the spirit shown by his players in a campaign which will see the club ply their trade in Premier Division Two next season after clinching promotion. He said: "I felt we showed a lot of character to come back after going one down.

"I was always confident we would take something from the game and once we got our passing game going that proved to be the telling factor."

Sandy's AFC: David Courtney, James McWhinnie, James Reid, Paul Scott, Dale Miller, Derek Forbes, Scott Drever, John Robertson, James Clarkson, Michael Osborne, Darren Hainey, Alex Hood, Lee Demarco, Jason Hood, Ross McGregor.

Scottish Widows: Jim Kellachor, Kevin Gill, Mark Brunton, Stephen Fyfe, John Mason, Scott Martin, Scott Mason, Paul Barr, Paul Harcus, Mike Perry, Sean Barr, Paul McNulty, Mike Kerr, Andrew Hogarth, Euan Auld.