Thrills and spills as Gretna up the Challenge

Gretna 5 Whitehill Welfare 2

GRETNA kept up their good form of late and reached their third cup final of the season with a well-deserved victory in a highly entertaining and hard-fought South Challenge Cup semi-final.

On 23 minutes Dean Rea made amends for an earlier missed penalty miss by heading Gretna into the lead from Alan Ingles' corner.

Whitehill equalised on 33 minutes through Steven McCormack and Ross Allum put the visitors ahead only a minute later. Then, on 35 minutes, Whitehill's McCormack was sent off for inexplicably kicking out at Rea.

Gretna levelled a minute into the second half when Cumersky volleyed in to make it 2-2. Whitehill began to lose their composure and Tony Nicholson then scored a cheeky goal with a back-heel flip into the net from Ryan Errington's cross.

On 81 minutes Rea got his second when Bejaoui dropped the ball after appearing to catch it and in the last minute Cumersky made it 5-2 after some great work by Daniel Carmichael.

Gretna: Richardson, Rea, Wood, Jardine, Ingles, Cumersky, Errington, Seggie, Nicholson, Hardman, Carmichael. Subs: Rudd, Black, Nugent, McMath, Rayson.

Whitehill Welfare: Bejaoui, Adamson, Lee, Johnstone, Anderson, Devlin, McGlashan, McCormack, Allum, Kidd, Calvey. Subs: Taylor, MacBrayne, Campbell, Koya, Haldane.