Ton-up Thomlinson adds to Teri woes in Legions battle

Martin Thomlinson notched his 100th goal for Langholm Legion on Saturday

Two goals in each half steered Langholm to victory in this much-anticipated battle of the Legions, writes John Slorance.

Facing table-topping Hawick, Langholm set the early pace and with 24 minutes gone broke the deadlock through a top-notch goal.

During a sweeping raid, Brian Mattinson cut the ball into the path of the highly-impressive Alistair Little who sent a glorious shot high into the net.

The Teries began to come more into the picture after this, but it was Langholm who did the scoring again with Mattinson producing the finishing touch when his drive beat Hawick keeper Ewan Reilly.

Playing with more purpose in the second half, Hawick were now doing the bulk of the attacking and hit the woodwork when a Callum Hope corner kick rebounded off the upright.

But the visitors were rocked in the 73rd minute via a breakaway goal. After latching onto a mishit clearance, Joshua Haldane surged forward to tuck a shot out of the reach of Reilly.

Within minutes of this, Hawick had a great chance to reduce the leeway on being awarded a penalty. However, there was to be no joy for the visitors. Langholm number one Derek Johnson saw to this by diving to his right to push away Hope’s spot-kick.

A minute from time, Hawick fell into further arrears when Iain Little whipped over a corner which was stabbed home by Martin Thomlinson, scoring his 100th goal for the Langhom club.